Faith Ringgold made quilts, wrote children’s books, and became one of the most politically charged artists in American art. So, how did an artist who started her career with landscapes and flowers become a fierce critic of racism, sexism, war until her death aged 94?In this episode of Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained, James Payne and Leslie Primo take a deep dive into the life and works of Faith Ringgold, The Harlem Renaissance, and the ways race, class and the events of recent American social history intersected within the lifetime of this beloved children's author.

Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained

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James Payne:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/greatartexplained

Threads: www.threads.com/@greatartexplained

YouTube: @GreatArtExplained

Web: www.greatartexplained.com

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/great-art-explained

Leslie Primo:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/artfirstprimo

Web: www.leslieprimo.co.uk

Threads: www.threads.com/@artfirstprimo

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/the-foreign-invention-of-british-art

Filmed and edited by Frédérique Cifuentes.

Born in Bradford, UK, David Hockney never hid the parts of his identity that set him apart from his contemporaries - his accent, his sexuality, his manner of dress. His work frequently focuses on everyday pleasures, rather than grand historical or political themes, and he has consistently embraced new technologies, from Polaroids to iPads, reducing hierarchies between “high” and “low” culture.

In this episode of Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained, Leslie Primo and James Payne are looking at how David Hockney navigated the social structures of postwar Britain, and what, of this background, he took with him, and what he left behind as he travelled Stateside.

Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained

www.instagram.com/primoandpaynewww.primoandpayne.com

James Payne:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/greatartexplained

Threads: www.threads.com/@greatartexplained

YouTube: @GreatArtExplained

Web: www.greatartexplained.com

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/great-art-explained

Leslie Primo:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/artfirstprimo

Web: www.leslieprimo.co.uk

Threads: www.threads.com/@artfirstprimo

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/the-foreign-invention-of-british-art

Filmed and edited by Frédérique Cifuentes.

In this episode of Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained, James Payne and Leslie Primo take a deep dive into the life and works of Michelangelo. Michelangelo had a complex relationship with social class in Renaissance Italy. Born into a modestly well-off but declining Florentine family, he was acutely aware of status and often sought to elevate his own position to elevate his family name.

Coming from the rough, manual labour of Renaissance artist workshops, he asserted his status as an artist grounded in individual genius, through his commissions for powerful patrons like the Medici and the papacy. This repositioning helped recast the artist from artisan to something closer to a modern rockstar: a singular, celebrated figure whose ideas carried as much weight as his labour.

Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained

www.instagram.com/primoandpayne

www.primoandpayne.com

James Payne:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/greatartexplained

Threads: www.threads.com/@greatartexplained

YouTube: @GreatArtExplained

Web: www.greatartexplained.com

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/great-art-explained

Leslie Primo:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/artfirstprimo

Web: www.leslieprimo.co.uk

Threads: www.threads.com/@artfirstprimo

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/the-foreign-invention-of-british-art

Filmed and edited by Frédérique Cifuentes.

J.M.W. Turner was pure working class. So, how does the son of a barber from Covent Garden become known as one of art history's greatest painters? Turner didn't sound like his contemporaries at the Royal Academy, he broke all the rules of traditional painting, and liked to stick his head out of moving train windows. 250 years after his birth, he's remembered as one of Britain's favourite artists.

In this episode of Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained, James Payne and Leslie Primo take a deep dive into the life and works of J.M.W. Turner.

Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained

Instagram: www.instagram.com/primoandpayne

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@PrimoandPayne

Web: www.primoandpayne.com

James Payne:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/greatartexplained

Threads: www.threads.com/@greatartexplained

YouTube: @GreatArtExplained

Web: www.greatartexplained.com

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/great-art-explained

Leslie Primo:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/artfirstprimo

Web: www.leslieprimo.co.uk

Threads: www.threads.com/@artfirstprimo

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/the-foreign-invention-of-british-art

🎥 Frédérique Cifuentes

We like to believe that, no matter your background, artistic talent will always rise to the surface. Yet we know that while creativity is universal, access, platforms, connections, money and time are not. These structural barriers for working class artists begin early and compound over time. In this podcast, James Payne and Leslie Primo combine lived experience with cultural analysis to unpack the role of class in Art.

Through the lives and works of working-class artists, James and Leslie explore the conditions that shaped their careers and their legacies. By situating individual stories within wider systems - such as unspoken codes of conduct, cultural gatekeeping, and inherited access - the Primo and Payne Great Art Explained podcast reframes some of history’s greatest art as a question of class rather than merit alone.

Primo and Payne: Great Art Explained

Instagram: www.instagram.com/primoandpayne

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@PrimoandPayne

Web: www.primoandpayne.com

James Payne:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/greatartexplained

Threads: www.threads.com/@greatartexplained

YouTube: @GreatArtExplained

Web: www.greatartexplained.com

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/great-art-explained

Leslie Primo:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/artfirstprimo

Web: www.leslieprimo.co.uk

Threads: www.threads.com/@artfirstprimo

Book: www.thamesandhudson.com/products/the-foreign-invention-of-british-art

🎥 Frédérique Cifuentes