A conversation about life as art with the author of The Flamethrowers. Few merge writing about art and writing about life the way Rachel Kushner does. A former editor at Artforum and Bomb, she’s deeply interested in memorializing the culture around the art—the conversations, the characters, the tall tales. In her 2013 novel The Flamethrowers, a National Book Award finalist, the New York art world of the 70s was brought to scintillating life; and in her new collection of essays, The Hard Crowd, she writes about Richard Prince, Raymond Pettibon, and Jeff Koons as vividly as she writes about her deep personal passion for motorcycles and muscle cars.

You can order The Hard Crowd now.

Episode 34 | Rachel Kushner

What we talk about when we talk about art. Exceptional makers and thinkers across art, literature, film, fashion, music, and more come together to talk about what it means to make things today.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Acclaimed fashion designer and curator Grace Wales Bonner is joined by the scholar and curator Horace D. Ballard. In a wide ranging conversation on art and fashion, they unpack the nuances of style, medium, and intentionality in art.
In addition to her brand Wales Bonner, Grace Wales Bonner’s curatorial exhibitions include A Time For New Dreams, Serpentine Galleries London (2019) and Artist’s Choice - Spirit Movers at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023) with accompanying publication Dream in the Rhythm: Visions of Sound and Spirit in the MoMA Collection (2023). Grace is currently leading a four-year research project, titled Between Critique and Hope, at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. 
Horace D. Ballard is the Theodore E. Stebbins Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums, where their work investigates the art, ideas, and visual cultures of the United States and the Americas. They are the author of numerous publications, most recently Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone (Williams College Museum of Art, 2022), and “Wet-into-Wet: Passages of Time and Tradition before 1880,” in Into the Light: American Watercolors, 1880-1990 (2023) edited by Hoffman, Grasselli, and Stewart for Harvard Art Museums.

Episode 67 | Grace Wales Bonner and Horace Ballard

In this very special episode, artist and legendary record collector R. Crumb visits his friends and fellow rare music enthusiasts John Heneghan and Eden Brower to listen to 78 records from Heneghan’s sprawling collection. 
John Heneghan is a musician, podcast host, record collector. He and his wife, Eden R. Brower, play in Eden & John’s East River String Band with R. Crumb and Ernesto Gomez. Tune into John’s Old Time Radio Show to hear more 78 record collectors spin discs from their collections 
For over four decades, R. Crumb has used the popular medium of the comic book to address the absurdity of social conventions, political disillusionment, irony, racial and gender stereotypes, sexual fantasies, and fetishes. Explore his available titles at David Zwirner books.

Episode 66 | R. Crumb’s Radio Music Hour

Artist Cauleen Smith and Michael Govan, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, join Helen for a live conversation in the garden at David Zwirner Los Angeles. Held on the occasion of the exhibition John McCracken, they explore the influence of Minimalism, a quintessential and often negated 20th century art movement.
John McCracken will be on view at David Zwirner Los Angeles through March 30, 2024.
Cauleen Smith is an artist who makes films, installations, and objects. Most recently, her exhibition, The Wanda Coleman Songbook, was on view at 52 Walker, York, from January 19–March 16, 2024.
Michael Govan is the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Episode 65 | John McCracken and Minimalism Now with Cauleen Smith and Michael Govan

An episode on the art and life of Hilma af Klint featuring art historian Briony Fer and af Klint’s biographer, Julia Voss.
Briony Fer is an art historian and professor at University College, London, and curator of the 2023 exhibition Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life. 
Julia Voss is a curator, art critic, and professor and author of Hilma af Klint: A Biography. She is the co-curator, along with Daniel Birnbaum, of Hilma af Klint and Wassily Kandinsky Dreams of the Future, on view at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen from March 16–August 11, 2024.

Episode 64 | On Hilma af Klint with Julia Voss and Briony Fer

For the third interview in her series with creative couples, Helen spoke to the first couple of American fiction: literary critic James Wood and award-winning novelist Claire Messud.

Episode 34 | Rachel Kushner

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