Art Matters

In this special episode, we look at Beyoncé and Jay Z's recently released video for 'APESH**T'. Set in the Louvre and filled with some of the most famous art in the world, the video feels like an ode to the history of art. We discuss the cultural impact of the video and how Beyoncé has been building up to this artistic moment for over a decade.

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-when-beyonce-goes-apest

How have paintings played a part in medical education? How has our approach to treating illness changed over time? And why are there so many paintings of physicians examining urine? This week’s guest, Dr Jack Hartnell, tells us about why medieval medicine doesn’t deserve its bad rap, the role art played in practising medicine, and how human anatomy was considered so important to artists that it was taught at the Royal Academy of Art.

This episode's guest:

Dr Jack Hartnell is an art history lecturer at the University of East Anglia and author of the new book Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. His book is published with the Wellcome Collection, and is an exploration of the ways in which people thought about medicine and the human body in the medieval period. In addition to studies in medical imagery, his medieval research explores cultural exchanges during the period between Europe and the Middle East.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-surgeon-letting-blood-from-a-womans-arm-and-a-physician-examining-a-urine-flask-125864

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/an-operator-making-an-incision-behind-the-ear-of-a-seated-patient-125987

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-vergers-dream-saints-cosmas-and-damian-performing-a-miraculous-cure-by-transplantation-of-a-leg-126111

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-standing-dissected-man-posterior-view-with-separate-sections-of-the-brain-125906

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-hunter-17181783-192542

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-physician-with-a-urine-sample-141796

Why did the Futurists want Italians to stop eating pasta? Would you try Henri Toulouse-Lautrec sheep’s feet recipe? On this episode we discuss the relationship between art and food via creative cookbooks by artists and chefs. Discover some famous artists who have dabbled in gastronomy and determine whether you would be brave enough to try their recipes.

Cookbooks discussed:

'The Futurists Cookbook' by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

'The Art of Cuisine' by Henri de-Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant

'Cooking for Artists' by Mina Stone

'Food for Thought' by Ferran Adria, edited by Richard Hamilton

'Wild Raspberries' by Andy Warhol and Suzie Frankfurt

This episode's guest:

Cedar is an artist, writer, and curator who frequently explores the crossover between art and gastronomy. He’s worked with institutions like Tate and the British Council, and also taught classes on the history of food and art for the Royal Academy. He’s currently curator of a three-year project, Outside The Cube, for HangarBicocca foundation in Milan.

Images:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136797/reine-de-joie-poster-toulouse-lautrec-henri/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/hamburger-229855/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dancer-ballerina-sea-132976

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/towards-a-definitive-statement-on-the-coming-trends-in-mens-wear-and-accessories-a-together-let-us-explore-the-stars-199110/

Have you ever thought much about the politics of fashion? How can paintings help us understand the social context of fashion throughout history? Is the woman in the famous Arnolfini portrait pregnant or does her dress make it appear that way? This week we chat with Amber Butchart, fashion historian and host of BBC’s ‘Stitch in Time’ series, about the hidden meanings we can glean from the fashions in paintings.

This episode's guest:

Amber Butchart is a fashion historian exploring the intersections between dress, politics and culture. She began her career as the Head Buyer for Beyond Retro, where she also helped establish their print and design archive. Amber went on to presented the six-part BBC series ‘A Stitch in Time’ wherein she explored the stories of figures in paintings via the clothing they wore. She’s also written four books on fashion for the British Library, Thames & Hudson, and the Octopus Publishing Group on nautical fashion, fashion in film, and fashion illustration.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/called-john-rose-16191677-the-royal-gardener-presenting-a-pineapple-to-king-charles-ii-16301685-217099

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-of-giovanni-arnolfini-and-his-wife-115018/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/la-belle-iseult-117726/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/study-for-the-private-view-1881-231652/

Painting and pigments are intimately connected, but have you ever given much thought to artists’ historical relationship with colour? Yves Klein had his blue and Malevich loved black; the Impressionists formed an entire movement around light and colour. On this episode, we speak with artist Stuart Semple (creator of the pinkest pink and blackest black acrylic paints commercially available) about artists’ love of colour and how he went about making his colouriest colour collection.

This episode's guest:

Stuart Semple is an innovative artist whose work has been shown at galleries in New York, London and Hong Kong. He first garnered notice in 2009 through his project ‘HappyCloud’ in which he released thousands of smiley-faced soap clouds from Tate Modern. He curated an exhibition in 2011 at the Old Vic Tunnels featuring works by Tracey Emin, Matt Collishaw, himself and others to support mental health, and in 2016 he released his pinkest pink pigment for sale online to ALMOST any artist. He has since released a yellowiest yellow, greenest green, loveliest blue, and very black black as well.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sunflowers-115371/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-supper-at-emmaus-115858/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/almanac-117788/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dynamic-suprematism-supremus-117758/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/pont-de-londres-charing-cross-bridge-london-218566/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/andre-derain-200726/

The Met Gala is one of the biggest cultural events of the season, seeing the collision of art, celebrity and fashion. Ahead of the gala, we sit down with the ladies of Tabloid Art History to discuss the history of the event, which celebrities to watch out for, and this year’s theme of ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’. Why is Catholic imagery so inspirational for artists, and how can you decode some of the religious references in fashion and art?

This episode's guests:

Listen to our previous episode with Tabloid Art History discussing celebrity culture. Tabloid Art History was created by Elise Bell, Chloe Esslemont and Mayanne Soret in November 2016, and has built a community of over 40,000 followers over the last year. They’ve been featured in Vanity Fair, Dazed, Vogue, i-D and Vox. They also produce a zine looking at the intersection of pop culture and art history.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/adam-and-eve-207100/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/saint-jerome-as-cardinal-115159/

Are artists obsessed with redheads? Would your hairstyle be considered sexually suggestive in the past? We chat with Rachael Gibson of the Instagram account @thehairhistorian about hair trends in art history from the Egyptians to present, and decode some of the hidden messaging behind some hairstyles in art.

This episode's guest:

Rachael is a freelance hair editor, working for hair brands including Schwarzkopf Professional and Mastered, where she creates their online session styling courses with Guido and Sam McKnight. She also runs the Instagram account @thehairhistorian, where she explores her love for art history and hair history. Rachael studied Fashion Design at Manchester Metropolitan University and also obtained an MA in Fashion Journalism from the London College of Fashion. Previously she worked as web editor for Hairdressers Journal International – the online home of the 135-year-old title Hairdressers Journal – and was also editor at the Scissorhands Media portfolio of consumer hair titles.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-cholmondeley-ladies-117741/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sancta-lilias-201561/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/eve-tempted-206097/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/combing-the-hair-la-coiffure-114482

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/no-1-dressing-room-150657/

Why can some people taste words? Do you see colours while listening music? What is synaesthesia, and where does it come from? Musicians like Pharrell Williams and Billy Joel have the condition; David Hockney has discussed having sound-colour synaesthesia, and Kandinsky and Van Gogh also experienced this phenomenon. This week we explore the fascinating neurological condition that connects two or more senses and ask how it can impact the way an artist creates.

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-synaesthesia-in-art

Jay Z created a performance art piece with Marina Abramović and wrote a song called 'Picasso Baby'; Kanye West made a video inspired by a Vincent Desiderio painting. How – and why – have recent hip hop artists made extensive references to art in their music? This episode takes a look at how the relationship between art and hip hop has evolved, how graffiti art and hip hop grew up together, and why referencing Basquiat in a song may be about more than just status.

This episode's guest:

James Braxton Peterson is a writer. He is the author of several books, including: The Hip Hop Underground and African American Culture, Prison Industrial Complex for Beginners and Hip Hop Headphones: A Scholar’s Critical Playlist. He is also the founder of Hip Hop Scholars, Inc., an association of hip hop generational scholars dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of hip hop, urban, and youth cultures. Peterson has written for Fortune.com, Newsweek.com, The Guardian, The LA Times, Reuters, and The Daily Beast. He is a media commentator and has appeared on MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, HLN, Fox News, and other networks as an expert on race, politics, and popular culture.

In this episode, we look at art that's skin-deep, displayed – not in galleries – but on the human body. Where does the history of tattooing meet the history of art? How have tattooed people been represented in paintings – and in the media? Why have some tattooers resisted the label of 'artist'? How did the fashion for Japanese prints among the Impressionists impact the world of tattooing? And who are the Da Vincis of the tattoo world?

This episode's guest:

Dr Matt Lodder is a lecturer in contemporary art and Director of American Studies at the University of Essex. His research primarily concerns the application of art-historical methods to the history of Western tattooing from the seventeenth century to the present day, with a focus on the professional era from the 1880s onwards. He has given invited lectures at venues including the V&A, the National Museum of Scotland, and the Museum of London. He has published academic papers in publications including Sculpture Journal and contributed forewords for over a dozen popular books on tattooing. He has contributed articles to the Royal Academy Magazine, History Today, The Guardian and others, and appeared on broadcast media across the globe.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/tattoo-artist-85336

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/ecce-homo-94341

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/blackgame-218477