Frida Kahlo was a painter in the early 20th century associated with the Surrealist movement. While she had some moderate success as a painter during her lifetime, her fame grew in the decades after her passing. Today she is among the most popular figures in art history. She is best known for her self-portraits that give viewers a sense of her pain but more importantly, her strength.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's mini-episode is about Auguste Rodin and his sculpture of The Burghers of Calais. The story behind the piece is an inspiring tale that defines courage. During the Hundred Years' War, the English had the city of Calais surrounded. As the days went on and the French army was unable to break the siege, the townspeople were forced to begin negotiating terms of surrender. They were told the town would be spared if 6 burghers (a burgher was a title, so these were the town leaders) would sacrifice themselves. Six men stepped up. While they were ultimately spared, one can imagine the mix of feelings as some might feel proud to do something noble and heroic and yet terrified at the grim reality. Traditional depictions of these men showed them as larger-than-life heroic figures, but Rodin gives us the stark reality. I think the brilliance of Rodin's work is that it recognizes that true courage means facing reality, and experiencing fear but still finding the strength to do what is right.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Calendar Stone, is a large, round stone carving that represents Aztec mythology and cosmology. It depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun, with the date 13 Reed marking the start of the fifth and final sun. It was created in the 15th century and is about 3 and a half meters wide, almost a meter thick, and weighs 25 tons. Learn more about the history and symbolism of this famous Aztec piece.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jean-Michel Basquiat has created some of the most highly valued American paintings ever to go on auction. Basquiat sought to remake art history in his image, and I would say he was successful. His triptych, Horn Players, is one of the artworks required for the AP Art History curriculum studied by American high school students.

In the middle of February 1981, a group exhibition opened at P.S.1 in New York. The show featured over a hundred different artists from the underground art scene. There were paintings, drawings, photographs, objects and graffiti all mixed together in an explosive portrait of the post-punk scene. The show was called New York/New Wave and many affectionately referred to it as the armory show of the 80s. The armory show was of course the famous exhibition from 1913 that introduced European modern art to the American audience. This time though, it wasn’t European artists upending the New York gallery scene. This time, the revolution was coming from inside the community. Among the artists on display was a 20 year old by the name of Jean-Michel Basquiat. He had previously made a name for himself as a graffiti artist. Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz created a text-based project SAMO spraypainting messages around new york. They were particularly active in the area where numerous gallery spaces were located. SAMO often sought to be a little bit humorous, but also gives an outsider’s perspective on the art world with phrases like “SAMO AS AN END TO PLAYING ART” or “SAMO FOR THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE”. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This mini episode is about The Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts from ancient Egypt. To better understand the collection as well as the culture and mythology behind these works, I looked a little bit at the page showing the judgment of Hunefer, a high-ranking scribe and priest.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claude Monet loved his garden and made about 250 paintings of water lilies. He and his Impressionist contemporaries were focused on color, light, and how our eyes perceive the world, but I would say technology was also central to the development. In his paintings of the train station, The Gare Saint Lazare, Monet gives us a glimpse of iron and glass station filled with the smoke of the steam engines. One critic wrote, “Unfortunately thick smoke escaping from the canvas prevented our seeing the six paintings dedicated to this study.” While the Impressionists were overtly apolitical, there is always a statement made by what is shown and what is not shown. Even if the artist himself or herself strives to be objective simply holding a mirror to their world, which way they aim that mirror matters. Monet shows the steam engine in its element as the subject of the work not merely something in the background. Technology of course drives change in our world. In the middle of the 19th century, painters suddenly had to compete with the camera. As photographs could quickly and easily capture the lines, shapes and proportions of a subject, painters shifted their focus to the color, an element cameras could not capture at that time. The tube of paint and numerous synthetic pigments also came about in the 19th century giving artists easy access to a wider range of colors. As I look at Monet’s use of so many colors, the pinks and blues of the cloud rising from the steam engine, I think of the critics the defenders of the status quo feeling threatened by change. They feel overwhelmed by the subject and begin to choke at the sight of roaring engines filling the space with smoke and they want to look away. They want the grand facades buildings and well-dressed elites walking city streets, not the workers and machines that powered the advancements. Monet though was unwavering. He meticulously studied his subjects at different times and in different seasons to find the beauty of even the smoke and engines in the industrial space. While the critics wanted grand visions of mythology, Monet showed what he and countless others experienced in the real world.

Other episodes to listen to:

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saloua Raouda Choucair was a pioneer of abstract art born in Beirut in 1916. Despite initial discouragement, she pursued her passion for art, studying in Paris and developing a unique style that blended Western modernism with Islamic artistic traditions. Her work, characterized by geometric forms and a sense of dynamic movement, explored the underlying structures of existence and the concept of infinity. Choucair's art was often met with confusion and misunderstanding, and she faced numerous challenges throughout her career. However, she remained committed to her vision and continued to create art that pushed boundaries. Late in her life, she finally received the recognition she deserved, with a major retrospective at the Tate Modern in 2013 solidifying her place in the history of modern art.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johannes Vermeer created stunning works and he is widely celebrated as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. This painting, Woman Holding a Balance is a work intended to encourage temperance and moderation being mindful that divine judgment is looming in the end.

Related episodes:

The Unbelievable Story of Han van Meegeren

Jan van Eyck | The Arnolfini Portrait

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's mini episode is about the Moai statues of Rapa Nui, commonly referred to as Easter Island. The purpose of the Moai remains a mystery, but one theory suggests they represented ancestors and were placed facing inland to watch over villages. Despite their size and detail, many Moai were damaged by natural events and human activity. The remaining Moai are a testament to the Rapa Nui people's skill and creativity, and they continue to inspire awe and wonder.

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1936, Meret Oppenheim sat down in a cafe with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. Picasso took note of Oppenheim's bracelet and commented that anything could be wrapped in fur. Meret replied "even this tea cup" and thus found inspiration for one of the greatest Surrealist sculptures of all time.

Other episodes for to explore:

Arts Madness 2025

Season 11 is all about my Arts Madness Tournament. Once again, I hope you will weigh in on your favorite artists/artworks as we go from 64 down to 1. For this year’s tournament, I put 32 works from the AP Art History list in one bracket, and on the other side, I have 32 artists/works from my personal “Salon des Refusés” that were not included in the curriculum. Voting for Round 1 will begin Monday, February 24. In the meantime, learn about all the different artists/artworks. I will be posting daily mini episodes for 64 days (mostly encore presentations with some updates and new episodes most Mondays).

Arts Madness 2025 links:

Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices