Artpal!

Alexa Horochowski’s Vortex Drawing 17 (2017.80.6) is a striking work of art that alludes to the problem of garbage in the oceans. The difficulty of finding a lot of other works by women is an example of a different type of garbage. FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi there! I’m Keith Pille, your art pal. We’re continuing … Continue reading "Ep. 1.8: Alexa Horochowski, a Bunch of Garbage, and Centuries of Systematic Sexism"

Yuji Honbori’s Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (2012.68.1a,b) and Susan Folwell’s Why Does He Call Me Caitlyn? (2016.5.13) are a couple of works of art that punch back at the walls of the arbitrary boxes the art world would traditionally put them in. FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi there! I’m Keith Pille, your art pal. We’re continuing our … Continue reading "Ep. 1.7: Honbori and Folwell, Catching You by Surprise"

George Morrison wanted to be known as “a painter who happened to be an Indian.” But people always talk about him in the context of his ethnicity, even if it’s to say that he didn’t want to be talked about that way. It’s fraught. At any rate, his Collage IX: Landscape (75.24) is a pretty … Continue reading "Ep. 1.6: The Only Question About George Morrison Is What Kind of Great Artist He Is"

William Howard and William Edmondson were certainly not insiders to the art world. Does that make their works—a writing desk (2012.11) and a sculpture of a ram (2013.56)—pieces of outsider art, though? Is “outsider art” a dangerous, loaded concept? Help! Don’t worry, Keith is here to help. FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi there! I’m Keith Pille, … Continue reading "Ep 1.5: Outsider Art: Threat or Menace?"

When artists have a distinctive style, it can be jarring to look at works of theirs that come across a little differently. Keith digs into a couple of MIA pieces– Kehinde Wiley’s Santos Dumont- The Father of Aviation II (MIA accession no. 2010.99) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s City Night (80.28)–that diverge from what we usually expect … Continue reading "Ep 1.4: Kehinde Wiley and Georgia O’Keeffe Off the Beaten Track"

Morris Kantor painted one hell of a portrait of his mother in 1922 (MIA accession number L2014.234.53), and it’s a good example of an approach to portraiture that can really tell a story. But it’s *also* a good entryway to talk about the relationship between museums and collectors. FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi there! I’m Keith … Continue reading "Ep 1.3: Morris Kantor, His Mother, and an Art Collector"

Keith digs into the 1969 painting Frank by Chuck Close, MIA accession number 69.137. It’s a striking work by an important American artist who, unfortunately, has been in the news lately for troubling reasons. This means it’s time for the always-fun game of “should/can I separate the art from the artist?” FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi … Continue reading "Ep 1.2: Chuck Close- Big Faces, Big Baggage"

Welcome to Artpal, both the podcast in general and Season 1 in particular. Host Keith Pille lays out some background and introduces the first season, which will act as a sort of guerrilla audioguide to a selection of works on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. FULL EPISODE TEXT Hi there! I’m Keith Pille, … Continue reading "Ep 1.1: What’s Up With This?"