Art Is Awesome with Emily Wilson

Bridget Quinn - Art Historian & Author


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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Today, Emily features a conversation with writer and art historian Bridget Quinn. Bridget discusses her latest book 'Portrait of a Woman,' which delves into the life of Adelaide Le Béliard, a pioneering 18th-century artist. She shares her journey of discovering Adelaide's work, her challenges in a male-dominated Royal Academy, and her rivalry with Marie Antoinette's painter, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. The episode also includes an exploration of how art and letters were used to reconstruct Adelaide’s story and a touching discussion of how Bridget's own experiences shaped her writing. This episode highlights essential themes of art, feminism, rivalry, and the force of Adelaide's will against significant odds.

About Author Bridget Quinn:

Bridget Quinn is author of the books She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next, an Amazon Editors’ pick for Best History books 2020, and the award-winning Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order), an Amazon pick for Best Art & Photography Books 2017 and a 2018 Amelia Bloomer List selection of recommended feminist literature from the American Library Association. Translated into four languages, in 2018 Broad Strokes was a national finalist for best art book of the year in Ukraine. NPR’s Susan Stamberg calls it “a terrific essay collection” with “spunky attitudinal, SMART writing,” marking the second time “attitudinal” has been used about her work (first: Kirkus 1996). Her current book is Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry & Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, more than thirty years in the making.

Raised on the high plains of Montana with six brothers, two sisters, a devout and sporty mother and a WWII Marine-turned-lawyer father, in a home surrounded by cows and nuclear missile silos, she’s lived since in Norway, New York, Oregon and California. She’s taught art history, history and writing for more than two decades; worked in museums and for galleries and private collections; worked at climbing gyms on both coasts, and was a researcher for the first several ESPN X Games, covering rock climbing, ice climbing, BMX freestyle and downhill mountain biking.

A graduate of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and a regular contributor to online arts magazine Hyperallergic, she’s a nationally sought-after speaker on women and art. She is a contributing editor to On the Seawall, and the former co-host of The GrottoPod: Writers on Writing. An avid sports fan and Iron(wo)man triathlete, her Narrative magazine essay “At Swim, Two Girls” was included in The Best American Sports Writing 2013. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, dogs, and hella bikes.

Visit Bridget's  Website:  BridgetQuinnAuthor.com

Follow  on Instagram:  @BQuinnterest

Learn more about and purchase Portrait of a Woman - CLICK HERE

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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:

Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California MagazineLatino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.

Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil

Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast

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CREDITS:

Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson

Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions

For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com

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Art Is Awesome with Emily WilsonBy Emily Wilson with Go-To Productions