Pablo Picasso is arguable one of the most talented and influential artists of the 20th century. He is certainly one of the most famous and successful. The name Picasso has become synonymous with artistic greatness, but the reality is not always quite as great as the myth. For all of his undeniable skill and talent, Pablo Picasso was a deeply flawed human being. His legacy is tarnished to some extent by his terrible treatment of women and his own family. I was hesitant to do an episode on Picasso for a long time because I generally want this podcast to have a positive tone and focus primarily on the better aspects of art. I tried to cover a bit of his artistic legacy and brilliance while acknowledging but not getting overly bogged down in the depressing details of his personal shortcomings. For this episode we focused on Guernica from 1937. It was Picasso‘s massive painting created as a response to the horrific violence of the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The German Nazis and Italian fascists were involved in the Spanish Civil War and Picasso painted Guernica at the request of Spanish Nationalists. He exhibited the painting at the Paris International Exhibition at the Spanish Pavilion. Nazi Germany had a huge pavilion at the same exhibition which had to make things a little awkward. Guernica was exhibited in other venues throughout the world to raise money for Spanish war relief and to convey his antiwar/anti violence political stance. As always, you can find the image linked within the show notes or look on the website www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com where fellow art teachers can also find numerous resources that can be helpful in the classroom.

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Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian artist and art theorist. He is known as one of the early pioneers of abstract art. Learn a bit about Kandinsky‘s background, his personal journey from a teacher of Law and Economics to one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Wassily Kandinsky is said to have had a condition known as synesthesia in which sound and color were linked sensory experiences. As a child he described hearing the paint his as he mixed colors. As an adult, he spoke of visual arts in musical terms. We discussed his unique vision as expressed in the piece Yellow Red Blue, 1925. Who ARTed is an art history podcast for all ages. Kyle Wood has been teaching elementary art for well over a decade helping to break things down and explain art history in a way that listeners of any age can understand and appreciate. For more information and resources of particular interest to fellow art teachers, check out the website www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com

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For images and resources, go to www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com

For this week's episode I spoke with Kelly Beach about the contemporary American artist, Phil Hansen. The specific work being discussed was Hansen's piece Cobain, from his Goodbye Art 2 series. Hansen's work focuses largely on the creative process and overcoming obstacles. Hansen himself struggled with a tremor that hindered his artistic career until he learned to "embrace the shake" and change his methods, change his mindset and opened up a whole new world of possibilities. 

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For more information and resources, go to www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com 

Pablo Picasso is credited with numerous quotes including, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." Interestingly, he may have stolen that idea from T.S. Elliot. It is not entirely clear whether Picasso ever did actually say the oft quoted line, but Elliot is definitely documented to have said "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different."

The quote is not the only instance of Picasso's questionable practices with regard to other people's property whether physical or intellectual. Diego Rivera accused Picasso of plagiarizing his work. The police even suspected Picasso of stealing The Mona Lisa in 1911, and while he did not take Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, Picasso was in possession of other art stolen from the Louvre.

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For images and more to explore, go to www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com 

For this episode, we talked about the Barabara Kruger. She is known for her collages using text often on top of found images in a way that confronts the viewer raising questions about the conduct of our culture. Her work is often political without being prescriptive. She raises questions and poses problems for the viewer to think about, but often leaves it to the viewer to make up his or her mind about the issue. In this episode, we talked about the popular piece, Don't be a Jerk, which was first made early in her career, but she was commissioned by MoMA to make another version of it in 1996, and in 2017 it was printed on skateboard decks. 

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As always you can find more information and resources on my website WhoARTedPodcast.com I thought it would be fun to do a bonus episode this Halloween focusing on the artistry behind the spooky, fun Lego Hidden Side collection. For those who are unfamiliar, the Hidden Side is Lego's augmented reality theme with delightful transformational elements. The sets focus on the paranormal and there are physical manifestations of hauntings in the real world play with the sets as well as a free app allowing players to can the set with their phone and hunt for ghosts or be a ghost haunting the town. It is a delightful combination of multiple artistic disciplines as sculptors, graphic designers, writers, animators all worked to create a masterful collection that engages the audience on multiple levels in the real and virtual worlds.

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As always you can find a picture of the work and more at www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com 

For this week's episode we learn a bit about Alexander Calder, the mechanical engineer who became a pioneer of kinetic sculpture. The specific work we looked at in this episode is Streetcar from 1951. It is one of many mobiles Calder created over his career. While he did have other amazing work including his wire sculptures that are just masterfully created drawings in air, as well as toys, jewelry, stabile sculptures, set designs and more, he is best known for his mobiles so we used a piece representative of his most famous innovation when discussing the artist and his legacy.

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