The Renaissance, which began in Italy some 700 years ago, may be one of the last true ideals we have. It's this beacon of beauty and truth that led us out of the Dark Ages. It gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But the Renaissance was also extremely, delightfully weird. A story of what happens when repression recedes and freedom moves in—and how this strangeness gave us our modern world.

You can see some of the "weird" artworks discussed in the episode here. Then, if you're able, see them in person at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

Truth, beauty, transcendence. For millennia, people think they know the rules of great art. Then, in the 1950s, a guy named Bob breaks every one of them, declaring car tires and Coke bottles and entirely blank canvases part of his art—and, in turn, being declared the greatest artist of his time. As war gives way to optimism, is Robert Rauschenberg offering a weary world a new way of seeing, or is he simply, entertainingly, and quite lucratively bamboozling it?

Here, you can see Rauschenberg's 1970 exhibition at Gallery 12, atop Dayton's department store in Minneapolis: www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archi…allery-12

Here's an iconic print, commissioned but ultimately rejected by Time magazine in 1969, acquired the following year by the Minneapolis Institute of Art when the museum held a major retrospective of his prints: collections.artsmia.org/art/7519/sign…-rauschenberg

And here's an incredible shot of a boat hauling Rauschenberg's massive canvas across Venice for the 1964 Biennale: www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archi…-biennale

New episode! In the 1920s and ’30s, Mary Sully makes her way from Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota to New York City and then around the country, making surprising, delightfully abstract portraits of American celebrities: Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple, Amelia Earhart. “Personality prints,” she calls them, though the most intriguing personality they reveal might be her own. A personality and a story that challenges everything you think you know about Native America—and all of America—in the early 20th century.

You can see Mary’s “personality prints” the Minneapolis Institute of Art this summer. Photo courtesy of the Mary Sully Foundation. 

Kicking off Pride Month with a surprisingly epic encore episode about Grant Wood. In the 1930s, the Iowa artist is one of the most famous people in America. The mind behind "American Gothic"—the painting of the man, the woman, and the pitchfork. 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 art.

You can see Wood’s quirky, nostalgic style in "The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art.

Some see a tender self-portrait in "Sentimental Yearner," a drawing made for Sinclair Lewis’s "Main Street."

This second sold-out live show of The Object podcast was recorded with an enthusiastic audience at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on May 11, 2025—Salvador Dalí's birthday, with our special guest: musician and writer Dessa. Quizzes, performances, storytelling, curator conversation—it's all here, all about Dalí, Surrealism, wit in art, and of course the creation of his famous (possibly functional?) lobster phones.

A big thank you to Dessa, Mia's events and A/V teams, and Mia curators Galina Olmsted and Max Bryant. See one of the lobster phones in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and learn more about Dessa's work not involving plasticized sea creatures. Watch for more live shows to come and new regular episodes every month.

The next live taping of The Object is May 11—the show is sold out, but don't forget to come if you have tickets and watch for the next live taping coming up. 

This encore episode reprises last year's popular episode about one of our oldest relationships with a non-human: dragons, and the very different ways we've imagined them in different parts of the world. Helping or hurting, making rain or breathing fire. The difference, of course, is us. Here, a brief, beastly history of the creature we can’t live with—or without.

You can see many manifestations of dragons, European and Asian, in Mia’s collection.

New episode! It is the stuff of legend, how Claude Monet discovers Japanese art in the late 1800s and becomes one of the most famous artists in the world. But one influence is as real as he is mysterious. The artist behind the "great wave" and hundreds of other iconic images. The artist who calls himself Hokusai (at least for a time), and only becomes more powerful after he's gone.

You can see art by both Monet and Hokusai, side by side, in the show "Hokusai / Monet" on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art through August 10.

If you snagged tickets to the next live taping of The Object, with Dessa, on May 11—nice work! They're now sold out. In the meantime, enjoy this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes ever. He was the original rebel with a cause, dedicated to showing the world a new way of seeing. But what if Claude Monet's real cause was...Claude Monet? What if his rise from scorn and poverty to become one of the most beloved and wealthy artists in history was fueled by myth and marketing? Can we love him anyway?

You can see Monet's work, well, almost everywhere. But you can see it now, in conversation with the art of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/hokusai-monet

Big news! It’s the first episode of Season 7 AND tickets are now available for the next live taping of The Object podcast, featuring musical guest Dessa, quizzes, curator conversation, and storytelling on Sunday, May 11, at 2 p.m. at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. All about surrealism, humor in art, and Mia’s beloved Aphrodisiac Telephone by Salvador Dalí—on his 121st birthday! It’s “Your Lobster is Ringing!,” the second and biggest edition yet of The Object LIVE! Tickets are FREE but limited. Reserve your seats now by going to the tickets page on the Mia website or follow this link: https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/0193e565-7c1c-d9d9-1b45-09cd98f22f2c

And now, today’s episode:

Nick Cave is a young Black art professor in Chicago when, in the 1990s, he makes his first “Soundsuit.” A kind of musical armor, born of pain and pride and self-preservation. He’s now made more than five hundred, adding to the long and fascinating history of going incognito to truly be oneself. A powerful story of the lengths we all go to be both seen and heard.

You can see a soundsuit from 2010 in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/111576/soundsuit-nick-cave

(Listen for a rare "performance" of the Mia soundsuit in this episode.)

Or in the “Giants” exhibition of art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, now on view at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org

The seventh season of The Object begins March 24!

Today, an encore presentation of an episode about Joe Minter and the "yard show" artists of Alabama. 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 see Minter's art in Alabama, of course, and at the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/132218/voyage-in-chains-joe-minter