The Object

In 1959, a couple of young women from New York find themselves in the Himalayas—an unlikely story of adventure, royal romance, and spiritual awakening that would eventually result in one of the greatest collections of Tibetan Buddhist art in the West. This episode, an experiment in sound and storytelling, explores the incredible convergence of myth and faith, vanished kingdoms and an American princess, and the ancient urge to improve the human experience.

You can see the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, assembled by Alice Kandell and newly installed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/tibetan-buddhist-shrine-room-the-alice-s-kandell-collection

Check out Kandell's photographs of the lost Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, and her friend Hope Cooke, who became its last queen, in the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.30180/

Art and dogs are like our shadows across time: whatever we're up to, whatever values we hold, eventually it all shows up in our art and our dogs. So what can we learn from looking at art about dogs—about our pets and ourselves?

You can see "Your Dog," the giant sculpture mentioned in this episode, in the current exhibition "Domestic Idols" at Mia, and right here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/102644/your-dog-yoshitomo-nara

You can see an example of a Colima dog, one of the wonderfully charismatic clay sculptures of animals made in Mexico nearly 2,000 years ago, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/5992/dog-colima

Santiago Rusiñol is a newly married heir to a Barcelona textile fortune when he decides to become an artist in Paris instead, in the 1880s, influencing Picasso and inventing a new vocabulary for modern art. But when he comes across an idyllic seaside village, back in Spain, his quest for meaning becomes a question: what are we running from? Can we be satisfied with what already exists?

You can see one of Rusiñol's stunning patio pictures, recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, now through the end of the month in the museum's lobby.

The daughter of a struggling artist, Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun wins the hearts of the French aristocracy—including Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI—with her sensitive portraits. But it's their heads she should be worried about, and when the Revolution hits she has to make a difficult choice. A remarkable story of freedom, and the lengths we'll go to keep it.

You can see her work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2570/portrait-of-countess-maria-theresia-bucquoi-elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun

In the 1930s, Grant Wood is one of the most famous people in America, the artist behind "American Gothic"—the painting of the man, the woman, and the pitchfork, standing outside their house. An artwork so celebrated and so curious it’s called the “modern Mona Lisa.” But as times change and jealousy spreads, Wood suddenly finds himself fighting for his life and livelihood, protecting a secret he hid almost everywhere but in his achingly quirky, queer art.

You can see Wood’s curious, nostalgic style in "The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2805/the-birthplace-of-herbert-hoover-grant-wood

Some see a self-portrait in "Sentimental Yearner," a drawing made for Sinclair Lewis’s "Main Street": https://collections.artsmia.org/art/22510/sentimental-yearner-grant-wood

On the 90th anniversary of the groundbreaking Tatra automobile, we bring you this encore episode from The Object's first season. A story of the last major war in Europe, when nothing seemed capable of slowing the Nazis—except, the legend goes, the very fast, very unusual Tatra car from Czechoslovakia. A poignant tale of poetic justice, grace in wartime, and the utopian future that wasn't.

You can see a Tatra T87 in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/98653/tatra-t87-four-door-sedan-hans-ledwinka

People have always imagined dragons among them. But they have always imagined them very differently: helping or hurting, making rain or breathing fire. The difference, of course, is us. A brief, beastly history of the creature we can't live with—or without.

You can see many manifestations of dragons, Asian and European, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/dragon

You'll find an example of the tiny gilt bronze dragons used in the "tossing dragons" ritual mentioned in this episode here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12028/dragon-china

Thirty-five years ago, Joe Minter received a vision. Soon, his half-acre property outside Birmingham, Alabama, began to fill with sculpture—reflections on everything from slavery to 9/11 to climate change—fashioned out of junk: car parts, toys, industrial detritus, gizmos of all sorts. An elaborate example of the Southern Black tradition of the “yard show," with Minter as its genial showman. Now, it's among the last of its kind, and as museums and collectors come calling, the race is on to determine the fate of Minter’s art and how to think about it.

You can read more about Minter's art, and that of his fellow Alabama autodidacts, now on view at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, here: https://jcsm.auburn.edu/exhibitions/black-codes-art-and-post-civil-rights-alabama/

You can see one of Minter's creations, now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/131461/old-rugged-cross-joe-minter

The premiere of Season 6! When the work of a brilliant but forgotten artist falls into the lap of a curator, it suggests something uniquely human: pleasure is good, unexpected pleasure even better. But when the surprises keep coming, years later, the story becomes both a mystery and a meditation on patience.

You can see the art of Richard Holzschuh here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Holzschuh

One week until Season 6 begins (March 11)! Here's a bonus encore episode, a highlight from a couple seasons ago about Georgia O'Keeffe and the loner legend that followed her to the end. In the early 1970s, when an ambitious curator comes calling, it seems the head ghost of Ghost Ranch is in fact the host with the most—and hardly ever alone. A fresh look at a myth we can’t stop believing.