Art Talk

By KCRWArts Visual Arts

Art Talk episodes

November 19, 2008 Sex, Life and Lots of Art
After being seen in London, Paris, and New York, the retrospective exhibition of works by 96-year-old Louise Bourgeois has finally arrived in LA -–
to dazzle, to provoke, and to unsettle virtually everyone who walks
through the galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art, hosting this
exhibition until the end of January...
5 min
November 12, 2008 Please, Mr. President, Take Us on a Date
I never start my weekly radio broadcast by giving you its title;
only if you visit the KCRW website or sign up to receive Art Talk via
email do you find out that each program comes with a headline. Today,
for the first time, I want to start this broadcast with the title. Here
it goes: PLEASE, MR. PRESIDENT, TAKE US ON A DATE...
5 min
October 29, 2008 Art, Politics, Money...
With just one week left before the election, it's difficult to think or
talk about anything else. The political drama –- or comedy, if you will
-– of the presidential election proves that we Americans do have a
National Theater after all...
5 min
October 22, 2008 Berlin, Part II: Getting Drunk on Art
In the last few years, I've had the good fortune to visit a number of
great cities famous for their art and culture -- from Paris and London
to Beijing and Mexico City -- but the eight days I recently spent in
Berlin left an especially indelible impression on me. To put it simply:
I never worked so hard and, definitely, I don't remember ever having so
much fun...
6 min
October 15, 2008 Seduced by Berlin
Patience is not my main virtue, but I had no choice but to wait for
many years to complete my journey to Berlin. It's been 34 years since
I've been there. At that time, the city was divided by the Berlin Wall
and we, Soviet tourists, were allowed to see only the Eastern part of
the city. I remember standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in 1974 and wondering what it would be like to walk through its
Neoclassical splendor and to discover the forbidden Western part of the
city hidden behind the Berlin Wall. It was a time when only a few of
the bravest or most desperate souls would attempt to climb over the
Wall, and for most of them, the price was a bullet in the head...
6 min
September 24, 2008 Is the Art Market Impervious to Stock Market Turmoil?
Following last week's roller-coaster news – Wall Street in turmoil while London art auction sales for Damien Hirst exceeded $200 million – I couldn't help thinking about the mischievous
Gods of Commerce and Art looking down from Mount Olympus at us mere
mortals and giggling at our attempts to make sense of it all...
5 min
September 17, 2008 Spooky, Unsettling, Mad
As a rule, I prefer in this program to talk about just one or two of
the best exhibitions I’ve seen recently, but today I want to make an
exception. So many good shows I saw last week, it makes sense to
mention all of them – even if briefly...
6 min
September 10, 2008 Bernini: Tales of Power and Seduction
Due to our recent pledge drive and the coverage of two political conventions, Art Talk has been off the air for a few weeks, so I wouldn't be surprised if you are starving for some good art news. I'm happy to report that the autumn season has gotten off to a good start with a number of museum and gallery exhibitions worth seeing...
5 min
August 20, 2008 From Russia with Art
By the rules that applied to everyone who grew up in the Russia of
yesteryear, I was destined to live and die in the same city, the same
apartment, holding the same job all my life. But in my lucky case, the
city happened to be beautiful St. Petersburg -– then called Leningrad
-– and the job I had was in a very special place: the Hermitage, the famous museum founded in the 18th century by Catherine the Great...
6 min
August 06, 2008 Marathon of Chinese Art
It’s been ten months since I returned from Beijing, but China is definitely on my mind. And how can it not be? With the Olympics starting this weekend, China has been front and center of political and cultural coverage for months: Tibet, the earthquake, mind-boggling new buildings in Beijing...
6 min