The Object (The Object podcast from the Minneapolis Institute of Art)

They are illusions, no more real than someone being sawed in half onstage. Yet the veiled ladies that Raffaelle Monti sculpts in the 1800s are very real to him. Poignant symbols of an identity he’s forced to conceal, even as they make him famous. To launch Season 3, it’s a story of pride and prejudice and dreams just out of reach. Here you can see Monti’s Veiled Lady, c. 1860, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12092/veiled-lady-raffaelo-monti

When Frida Kahlo dies, in 1954, she is soon forgotten. And then, suddenly, she seems to be everywhere: on magnets, puzzles, underwear, flip-flops. How did this remarkable artist become an international icon, an emoji, a figure of fervid devotion? And what does she mean to those who believe? You can see Yasumasa Morimura's "An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo," mentioned in the show, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/109149/an-inner-dialogue-with-frida-kahlo-morimura-yasumasa Have you heard Frida Kahlo talk? Neither has anyone else--not since she died, in 1954. Unless it turns out that this is actually her, on a recording surfaced a couple years ago by the National Sound Library of Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjTA2Dd8U9o

In 1852, Harriet Hosmer packs her pistol, her anatomy degree, and two pictures of a sculpture she made and moves to Rome. There, among other “emancipated women” in the expat colony, she becomes one of the world’s most famous artists. But it’s the spirit world that truly calls to her, the realm of the dead that she channels through clairvoyance and seances. So what happens when she answers? You can see her remarkably tender sculpture of Medusa, referenced in this episode, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/81074/medusa-harriet-goodhue-hosmer Learn more about “Supernatural America,” the exhibition organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and featuring Hosmer’s Medusa, opening June 2021 at the Toledo Museum of Art: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/supernatural-america-the-paranormal-in-american-art

Mademoiselle Lange is the first celebrity actress in France, as famous for her lovers as her looks. But when the French Revolution roils the country, she is forced to fight for her life, and meets her match in a rising artist who is commissioned to paint her portrait. A picture that will upend both their lives--and the art world--in dramatic fashion. You can see the scandalous portrait mentioned in this episode, "Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae," here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1727/portrait-of-mlle-lange-as-danae-anne-louis-girodet-de-roussy-trioson

In the early 1800s, the four famous bronze horses of Venice are restored to their place atop St. Mark's Basilica, after a long and humiliating absence. But when American artist Charles Caryl Coleman arrives in Venice, in the 1870s, his celebrated painting of the horses exposes some clues to their real origins. A story of empire and theft, and a betrayal that forever changed the world. You can see the painting by Coleman, The Bronze Horses of San Marco, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2607/the-bronze-horses-of-san-marco-charles-caryl-coleman This episode features a clip from the podcast Curious Objects, from Antiques magazine. Listen to more at https://www.themagazineantiques.com/podcast/

When World War II begins, Lee Miller is one of the most sought-after women in the world--a celebrated model, an irresistible muse, and an emerging photographer in her own right. So why does she trade the high life for the front line, risking everything to become the only female photojournalist allowed in combat?

When Gordon Parks becomes the first Black photographer at LIFE magazine, in 1949, he’s determined to show the full measure of Black lives in America. Whether the magazine, and the rest of America, is ready or not. You can see "American Gothic," Parks’ photograph of Ella Watson that is featured in this episode, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/100557/american-gothic-gordon-parks You can see a variety of other work by Parks, who began his career in Minnesota, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/artist:%22Gordon%20Parks%22

Rembrandt and Lievens were friends and foes, two of the most promising artists of the Dutch Golden Age. But like Mozart and Salieri, one is remembered as an all-time great, the other is mostly forgotten. Only now is the true story of Rembrandt’s rival being told--a story of ego and admiration, tragedy and triumph, forgery and greed. And it’s rewriting everything we know about the master and the nature of genius. You can see one of Rembrandt's etchings made after his rival's original here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55345/the-second-oriental-head-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn Here you can see Rembrandt's reworking of his image of Christ presented for judgement, after suffering the wrath of the Church: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/115357/christ-presented-to-the-people-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn

It’s good to be the pope in the 1600s. But staying pope is not so easy, as the famous Barberini family finds out when one of their own takes up the tiara in 1623. As Rome fills up with their art, and dungeons fill up with their enemies, can they survive the forces of change threatening their worldview—and the forces of the occult threatening to kill the pope on Christmas Day? You can see some of the art commissioned by the Barberini family, including Pope Urban VIII, all over Rome—in the Piazza Barberini, the Palazzo Barberini, and of course St. Peter’s Basilica—and also in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/pope%20urban Look closely and you may see the curious Barberini family crest—a trio of bees—on fountains, frames, and even the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. Read about its symbolism and ubiquity here: https://theframeblog.com/2017/08/22/bees-in-the-frame-part-1-the-barberini-bee/

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” wrote Tom Robbins, the novelist. He could have been referring to Henri Rousseau, the fin de siècle autodidact who begins painting seriously in retirement: storybook-style scenes of exotic animals and jungles that eventually catch the eye of Picasso and Matisse. A story worth remembering as you contemplate a new year, same as the old year—or not. You can see a print of Rousseau’s “War,” a possible inspiration for Picasso’s “Guernica,” in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7859/la-guerre-henri-rousseau You can see one of Rousseau’s most iconic works, “The Dream,” in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79277 A new season of The Object starts soon. Subscribe now and be among the first to hear it.

Elizabeth Catlett, the granddaughter of enslaved African-Americans, is a struggling artist at the height of Jim Crow. But when she moves to Mexico City in 1946, she finds love, inspiration, and eventually fame. There's just one catch: she can't come home. (This episode first aired in March 2020.) New season begins March 14. Check out her work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7890/sharecropper-elizabeth-catlett

In 1852, Harriet Hosmer packs her pistol, her anatomy degree, and two pictures of a sculpture she made and moves to Rome. There, among other “emancipated women” in the expat colony, she becomes one of the world’s most famous artists. But it’s the spirit world that truly calls to her, the realm of the dead that she channels through clairvoyance and seances. So what happens when she answers? (This episode first aired in June 2021. New season begins March 14.) You can see Hosmer's remarkably tender sculpture of Medusa, now on view in the "Supernatural America" exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, in the online collection: collections.artsmia.org/art/81074/med…oodhue-hosmer

(Season 4 premiere) It’s one of the largest jade sculptures in the world, a 640-pound mountain commissioned by the Chinese emperor. But in 1901, in the ugly aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, it ends up leaving China with an American diplomat—only to resurface on the dinner table of a lumber baron. It’s a story of power and scandal, a story as old as stone: can anyone be king of the hill for long? You can see "Jade Mountain Illustrating the Gathering of Scholars at the Lanting Pavilion" here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/4324/jade-mountain-illustrating-the-gathering-of-scholars-at-the-lanting-pavilion-china

In the 1970s, Georgia O’Keeffe is supposedly the hermit savant of the New Mexico badlands, rarely heard and seldom seen, even as the outside world can’t get enough of her enigmatic art. But when curators, journalists, and even the FBI come calling, it seems the head ghost of Ghost Ranch is the host with the most—and hardly ever alone. A fresh look at a myth we can’t stop believing. You can see one of O'Keeffe's badlands pictures, "Black Place I," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/119128/black-place-i-georgia-okeeffe Also, one of her iconic views from Ghost Ranch, "Pedernal--From the Ranch #1": https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1554/pedernal-from-the-ranch-1-georgia-okeeffe And a photograph of her with husband Alfred Stieglitz: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1973/stieglitz-and-okeeffe-arnold-newman

The man behind "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" was one of the richest, most popular authors in the world—an adventurous celebrity who could fight as well as write. But many of Alexandre Dumas’ readers today don’t know that he was Black—or that his best story may have been his own. A portrait of Alexandre Dumas, widely reproduced in his day, was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/142671/portrait-of-alexandre-dumas-pere-pierre-francois-eugene-giraud Another portrait of Dumas in Mia’s collection—younger, dashing, looking a little like Prince: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/54426/portrait-of-alexander-dumas-achille-deveria

No one lives forever. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying, and for a long time the noble way to avoid getting old and dying was to avoid getting old at all: the Greek notion of the “glorious death” that confers immortality in battle. It’s an idea that resurfaces throughout history—until it meets its match in a war of many deaths and little glory. You can see “Kiss of Victory,” the sculpture that kicks off this episode and launched the career of Sir Alfred Gilbert, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2279/kiss-of-victory-sir-alfred-gilbert

Leonora Carrington has never felt at home in her wealthy, conservative family. But when she meets the Surrealists in the 1930s, and runs from everything she knows, it will take everything she has to become the artist and writer she wants to be. Most importantly: her singular imagination, which reveals the world as both more magical and more haunted than most of us care to admit. You can see her feminist take on Surrealism in this painting from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/98514/dear-diary-never-since-we-left-prague-leonora-carrington

As long as people have told stories, we have told stories about animals. Stories of slow turtles and fast rabbits, sly foxes and cunning monkeys, that are really stories about ourselves. But why? What can animals tell us about human nature? And what happens to our fellow creatures when we turn them—in art and literature and myth—into something they’re not? You can see Edwin Landseer’s startling painting of the 17th century fable “The Monkey and the Cat” in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (just don’t show your cat): https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3077/the-cats-paw-sir-edwin-henry-landseer

In 1798, a portrait artist named Joshua Johnson advertises himself as a “self-taught genius.” A few decades later, he will nearly be forgotten. It’s a mystery only now being revealed: the unlikely story of the man sometimes called America’s first Black professional artist. A story of slavery and freedom, racism and redemption, nearly lost to history. You can see Johnson's "Portrait of Richard John ," c. 1817, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/106096/portrait-of-richard-john-joshua-johnson

In ancient China, a royal sorcerer named Xu Fu is sent with some 60 ships to find the elixir of immortality. But on the second voyage, he and his crew of thousands disappear. Possibly to Japan, legend suggests, where Xu Fu becomes the first emperor. Now, as a Hmong artist explains, one clue to their fate may lie with his people’s own legendary history. You can see the entire 50-painting series of “The Hmong Migration” by Cy Thao, mentioned in this episode, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, including the painting depicting Xu Fu’s voyage: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/89559/5-cy-thao

In the mid-1960s, Richard Avedon is the most famous photographer in the world, redefining fashion and celebrity while becoming an icon himself. But as America is shaken by the war in Vietnam and racial strife, he struggles to reinvent himself as a serious artist, showing the country as it is—not as it pretends to be. You can see more than a dozen of Avedon's most famous photographs, including his portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Dovima with elephants, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Richard%20Avedon You can see images of his groundbreaking 1970 show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://www.avedonfoundation.org/minneapolis-institute-of-arts-mn-1970-richard-avedon And images of Avedon's very 1960s fashion shoot with Angelica Huston in Ireland here: https://lineargrey.wordpress.com/portfolio/when-anjelica-met-avedon/

In 1650, a less-than-holy artist is hired to paint a religious mystery even the pope isn't totally sure about. It's just one part of the Church's plan to counter its enemies with guns, inquisitions, and art, but the mystery—and the artist—will become increasingly popular as a new world threatens to end the old. You can see the grand artwork mentioned in the show here, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1613/the-immaculate-conception-with-saints-francis-of-assisi-and-anthony-of-padua-giovanni-benedetto-castiglione

Many people dream of finding a masterpiece in the attic, a closet, or a thrift store. In 2007, it happened to a church in a small town, and the story behind the painting is just as curious. It's a special bonus episode to start the new year with good vibes and a question: do you feel lucky? What would you do? Maybe you should listen to find out. You can see the painting mentioned in this episode, "Christus Consolator," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/104894/christus-consolator-ary-scheffer

In 1950, Robert Doisneau takes one of the most iconic photographs of Paris—a young couple kissing on the street—that eventually becomes a global symbol of romance, spontaneity, joie de vivre. But the real story is only now coming to light, a story about the world as it is and the world as we wish it to be. You can see the photograph in question here, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but be sure to listen before you buy a ticket to Paris: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/11815/le-baiser-du-trottoir-robert-doisneau

Season 5 of The Object begins Monday, March 6! Until then, enjoy this encore presentation of "The Black Musketeer," first broadcast in May 2022. The man behind "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" was one of the richest, most popular authors in the world—an adventurous celebrity who could fight as well as write. But many of Alexandre Dumas’ readers today don’t know that he was Black—or that his best story may have been his own. A portrait of Alexandre Dumas, widely reproduced in his day, was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art: collections.artsmia.org/art/142671/po…eugene-giraud Another portrait of Dumas in Mia’s collection—younger, dashing, looking a little like Prince: collections.artsmia.org/art/54426/por…hille-deveria

The first episode of Season 5 is a story as old as life itself: things fall apart. But what really happened to all those ancient statues missing arms, legs, heads, and other appendages? How have we come to treat them as normal--a normal way of seeing the classical age, like paintings of the Renaissance or black-and-white photos of the 1900s? Have they shaped a perception of the past as more remote, mysterious, and, well, broken than it really was? See some of the battered artworks mentioned in this episode, including the Tiber muse: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1280/the-tiber-muse-graeco-roman A Graeco-Roman torso: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/8483/torso-graeco-roman An ancient Egyptian figure: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1346/striding-figure-ancient-egyptian And the Venus de Milo: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010277627

As long as humans have made art, they have made art of naked humans. But why? From Greek gods romping in the buff to saints au naturel to modern “bathing beauties,” it’s the surprising story of a phenomenon as misunderstood as it is ubiquitous. You can see one of Matisse's reclining nudes, mentioned in this episode and a great ab workout, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1888/large-seated-nude-henri-matisse And a photo of the real thing in studio here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/4502/henri-matisse-brassai The scandalous Caillebotte nude on a couch here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Caillebotte One of many Saint Sebastians here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/47994/saint-sebastian-martin-schongauer And last but certainly not least, Dürer's winking image of men at the bath: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Durer%20bath

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, lucratively bamboozling it? Here, you can see Rauschenberg's 1970 exhibition at Gallery 12, atop Dayton's department store in Minneapolis: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archive/currents-daytons-gallery-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: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7519/signs-robert-rauschenberg And here's a boat hauling Rauschenberg's work across Venice for the 1964 Biennale: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archive/32nd-venice-biennale

Simeon Solomon—bold, dashing, and openly —is a rising star in the Victorian art world when a scandal in 1873 supposedly forces him into obscurity, a cautionary tale for fans like Oscar Wilde. But the truth is more complicated and only now coming to light, revealing the fate of this forgotten figure as both more tragic and more inspiring. You can see an “allegorical self-portrait” here, from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1686/allegorical-self-portrait-simeon-solomon You can see his haunting masterwork “Love in Autumn” here: https://arthive.com/artists/1557~Simeon_Solomon/works/9454~Love_in_autumn

He rose from scorn and poverty to become one of the most beloved and wealthy artists in history—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 was fueled by marketing, myth, and money? Can we still love him anyway?

She was one of the most recognizable women in the world, her long copper hair filling painting after painting, even if few people knew her name: Cornforth. Model, muse, and mistress to the most influential artists of the Victorian era, she still had to fight for everything she got. Until, in the end, she lost the one thing she could count on for sure: herself. You can see in this 1868 painting, "I know a maiden fair to see," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/83645/i-know-a-maiden-fair-to-see-charles-edward-perugini You can see the photograph mentioned in this episode--of , posing beside a mirror--here: http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/sa223.rap.html

An ancient African water spirit, Portuguese slave traders, and a snake charmer traveling with the circus--incredibly, all of their stories collide in a narrative that spans centuries, continents, and the best and worst of human instincts. How do we find resilience among the wreckage? How do we shape the spirit world when this one has failed? You can see the Mami Wata figure discussed in this episode in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/111879/mami-wata-figure-igbo

In the fall of 1930, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera travel to the United States for the first time, welcomed as celebrity artists, ambassadors of an ancient and powerful Latin American identity. But as the months turn to years, can Rivera’s vision of one united Pan-America--and their young marriage--survive the pressures of politics, fame, temptation, cultural differences, and scandal? You can see examples of Diego Rivera’s work, and that of other modernist Mexican artists, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/diego%20rivera You can see Rivera’s San Francisco mural “Pan American Unity,” discussed on the show, here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pan-american-unity/ You can see photos of Frida and Diego taking San Francisco by storm here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco You can see (and read) Kahlo’s heartfelt letter to Rivera from a San Francisco hospital (“Diego, mi amor”) in the collection of the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/frida-kahlo-letter-diego-rivera%3AAAADCD_item_739 You can read about and see images from the SFMOMA’s excellent recent exhibition “Diego Rivera’s America” here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/diego-riveras-america/ Last and certainly not least, you can read some of the story “Queen of Montgomery Street,” written about Kahlo in San Francisco, also in the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/AAADCD_item_766

In the 1890s, B.A. Haldane sets up a photography studio in Alaska and begins documenting the vibrant life of his Tsimshian community—even as non-Native photographers like Edward Curtis are trekking to reservations, documenting what they believe is a "vanishing race.” Quietly contradicting a president and scientists steeped in theories of white supremacy and evolution, Haldane and others offer an alternative vision only now being rediscovered. A story of resistance and resilience and what we miss by seeing only through our own lens. You can see the photography of Haldane and other Native artists in "In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now," on view at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/in-our-hands-native-photography-1890-to-now And read more about him in the work of Tsimshian scholar Mique’l Dangeli: https://www2.unbc.ca/sites/default/files/events/45874/public-presentation-miquel-dangeli-re-developing-work-b.a.haldane-19th-century-tsimshian-photography/2018-02-14-miqueldangeli-b.a.haldanephotography.pdf

From the gift of fire to Pandora’s Box to the original white elephant, the long history of giving is also the history of receiving—a relationship fraught with desire, dubious intentions, and occasional disaster. It’s a playful journey down a winding chimney: four stories about our need to present each other with presents. You can see Man Ray’s “Cadeau,” discussed in this episode, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/5343/gift-man-ray And an evocative 1914 take on Pandora’s Box here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55113/pandoras-box-timothy-cole And a rather realistic perspective on the gift-bearing magi: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1785/journey-of-the-magi-james-tissot

In 1942—years before becoming the first Black photographer for Life magazine, the director of Shaft, and a style icon the New York Times will hail as the “godfather of cool”—Gordon Parks is a young, ambitious photographer in Washington, D.C., struggling to document the injustice he’s found in the nation’s capital. Until, one day, he meets Ella Watson. Illustrating her life in photographs changes both of them, putting Parks on the path to fame and Watson in the minds of Americans as the heroic figure in one of the most iconic images of the century—known simply as Government Charwoman. You can see the best-known photo from this series, American Gothic, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/100557/american-gothic-gordon-parks You can see more photos from the series here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/fsa-owi-black-and-white-negatives/articles-and-essays/documenting-america/ella-watson-united-states-government-charwoman/

They are illusions, no more real than someone being sawed in half onstage. Yet the veiled ladies that Raffaelle Monti sculpts in the 1800s are very real to him. Poignant symbols of an identity he’s forced to conceal, even as they make him famous. As we prepare for Season 6, it’s an encore episode that first aired in 2021, a story of pride and prejudice and dreams just out of reach. Here you can see Monti’s Veiled Lady, c. 1860, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a visitor favorite for more than half a century: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12092/veiled-lady-raffaelo-monti

It was a mystery: two dancers—one white, one Black—captured on stage in 1959 in a photograph found in a museum archive. Who were they? But a search for their identity uncovers much more: a forgotten history of art and integration. When the pursuit of modern ideals promised a better world, and the pursuit of art promised personal freedom. The farther from the New York spotlight, the better. You can watch Martha Graham's 1959 TV broadcast of "Appalachian Spring" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmgaKGSxQVw And Katherine Dunham's "Ballet Creole" from 1952 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSTuO5E9_1g

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.

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

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

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

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 Third Reich—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

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, 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

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

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.

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

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/

Wanda Gág may be the talented, bob-sporting, fiercely independent, 1920s celebrity cat mom you didn't know you needed right now. Guest host Lizzi Ginsberg looks back at the author and illustrator of “Millions of Cats,” her surprising life and recent revival. You can see her charmingly inventive prints in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/wanda%20gag You can read about her current show at the Whitney Museum of American Art here: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/wanda-gags-world

Lizzi Ginsberg is the Chicago-based writer and researcher who guest-hosted our recent episode on Wanda Gág, the Minnesota-raised artist who went on to fame and some fortune in New York writing and illustrating quirky, beloved books like "Millions of Cats." Here, Ginsberg shares what drew her to Gág and the charming, sometimes tragic story of a woman deliberately both behind and ahead of her time. You can see some of Gág’s work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Wanda%20Gag

When the Moulin Rouge opens in Paris, in 1889—a faux windmill spinning over the entrance, a two-story elephant opening to reveal an orchestra inside—the world is changing quickly. The first film comes out that same day. Electric lights are enlivening the night. The old Victorian morals are being challenged, perhaps nowhere moreso than at this new bohemian cabaret where rich and poor are coming together around the high-kicking can-can and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is the absinthe-drinking artist-in-residence—a flash of freedom and romance that will resonate in the popular imagination long after the moment dissolves in war, crackdowns, and heartbreak. You can see one of Toulouse-Lautrec's best-known paintings, "At the Moulin Rouge," now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently on view at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/at-the-moulin-rouge

For our final episode of Season 6, it’s an ode to winter. A winter of frozen London rivers and snowy Japanese villages—the kind we rarely have anymore if we ever really did. A winter of art and literature, of pure and plentiful snow—a “wintry mix” we can all appreciate. A standout winter painting (and recent addition to Mia’s collection) is this Winter Landscape by the Finnish painter David Johannes Niemelä, from 1919: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/145286/winter-landscape-david-johannes-niemelae If you need a refresher on the Little Ice Age or its art, almost surreal in both its recency and its sights, here’s the quick and icy: https://fiveminutehistory.com/20-amazing-winter-paintings-from-the-little-ice-age/

Most of us know the Icarus myth, of the young man who soars too close to the sun—or at least we think we do. But there's more to the story. And at various times in history, the takeaway has changed. As a new year begins, it's worth revisiting the classic tale: how high, or how low, do you want to go? You can see several takes on the Icarus story in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/icarus And one of the more famous, curious depictions here: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/draper-the-lament-for-icarus-n01679

This first-ever live show of The Object podcast (recorded at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on January 23, 2025) features music and storytelling celebrating French painter Édouard Manet and his Impressionist friends and frenemies (yes you, Monet). Watch for more live shows coming soon!

You can see one of Manet's portraits, as discussed on the show, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: The Smoker. 

She was wealthy, single, and always in the right place at the right time. But when Lily Place was in Egypt during the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, her art collecting suddenly put her at the epicenter of a curious and powerful trend that was about to shape world history one last time.

After founding General Mills, the food and flour giant, James Ford Bell turned to preserving the America he knew and loved. A vision that was fast disappearing in the stampede of mass immigration — and may never have existed at all.

There were wolves and caribou on the Minnesota frontier when John Scott Bradstreet arrived with his white suits and Far East fantasies of furniture, determined to elevate this outpost with fine interior design. A globalist mission on a collision course with history.

Miriam McHugh Taney was a professional encyclopedia, lecturing on everything from the Italian Renaissance to early American furniture — a rare authority for a woman in the 1930s. But the real purpose of her museum talks went beyond knowledge.

When the frontier closed, the fate of Native Americans seemed sealed. But George Morrison, born into poverty near a reservation on Lake Superior, was as determined to be an artist as he was to avoid stereotypes.

An assistant curator decides to x-ray a 3,000-year-old mummy case, to learn if anything’s in there, and sees more than he bargained for. The international mystery would change his life — and the fate of the mummy.

In the 1920s, the sculptural image of Shiva Nataraja--the Hindu god Shiva as the cosmic dancer, ensuring the cycle of life--suddenly becomes a museum must-have. As India strives for independence, the image comes to symbolize something of the nascent nation itself.

Long ago, when everyone but your dog was a potential assassin, you needed to protect yourself by any means necessary. Starting with poison-proof silverware. A surprising story of art, myth, and the dangerous world that was.

When World War II began, nothing seemed capable of slowing the Third Reich. Except a very fast, very unusual Czech automobile called the Tatra. A poignant story of poetic justice, grace in wartime, and the utopian future that wasn't.

Kehinde Wiley, long before he painted President Obama's official portrait, went to Brazil. There, he was inspired by a monument to the great aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, whose incredible, tragic life is as forgotten in the United States as it is celebrated almost everywhere else. You can see the monument here: https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/fotografias/GEBIS%20-%20RJ/rj39822.jpg And you can see the painting discussed in this episode here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/107241/santos-dumont-the-father-of-aviation-ii-kehinde-wiley

He was the ideal man. Handsome, strapping, with unreal proportions. But ancient statues like the Doryphoros originally looked much different, a revelation that is slowly upending long-held assumptions about race and art in the classical world. And not a moment too soon to confront the dangerous claims of white supremacists. You can see a 3D model of the Doryphoros statue here: skfb.ly/6KZOH. You can read more about it here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3520/the-doryphoros-italy. And read more here about the scholars cited in this episode, who are confronting the abuse of antiquity by hate groups: https://bit.ly/2YRG5GZ

In 1666, Rembrandt painted a masterpiece that disappeared almost as soon as he finished it. Where it went, and what it meant to its various owners, is as fascinating as the question it begs: how can people be so tender and also so cruel?

William Edmondson is a middle-aged laborer in Nashville, Tennessee, at the height of the Great Depression, when God tells him to carve a tombstone. Soon, he's the first African-American artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art. But his short-lived celebrity reveals the art world's problematic relationship with race. You can see one of his many sculptures of a ram, of the Dorset sheep variety local to Tennessee, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/118808/ram-william-edmondson

Elizabeth Catlett, the granddaughter of enslaved African-Americans, is a struggling artist at the height of Jim Crow. But when she moves to Mexico City in 1946, she finds love, inspiration, and eventually fame. There's just one catch: she can't come home. Check out her work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7890/sharecropper-elizabeth-catlett

Yoshitoshi is poised to be the greatest artist of the Floating World, the semi-fictional universe of and style in old Japan. But when Japan opens to the West, in the 1850s, Yoshitoshi struggles to adapt. And the ghosts he conjures become colorful symbols of a vanishing way of life. If you're an anime enthusiast, a fan of old Japan, or just into beguiling beauty wherever you find it, you're going to love Yoshitoshi. Find him here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Yoshitoshi

Long before Vincent van Gogh died young, poor, and under-appreciated, artists had gotten the message: you have to suffer for your art. But where did this template of the starving artist come from? And is there any truth to it or is it a myth, a romantic misreading of how great art is made? Here's Vincent van Gogh's "Olive Trees," from 1889, a year before his death, when he was in treatment in St-Rémy in southern France: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1218/olive-trees-vincent-van-gogh

Simeon Solomon is a young art star in the Victorian era. But when scandal threatens his career, offering a cautionary tale to men like Oscar Wilde, he must choose between his livelihood and his identity. Incredibly, Mia has two works by Solomon in its collection, acquired in the 1960s when Solomon had been all but erased from art history. You can see them here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Simeon%20Solomon

A mysterious stone sculpture, supposedly found in Mexico, is hailed as a Chac Mool, the iconic Mayan vessel of human sacrifice. It tours Europe as a masterpiece of ancient Mesoamerican art. It's featured in magazines and books. But a surprising discovery suddenly begs the question: What is it really? See the Chac Mool for yourself here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/17203/chacmool-maya

The animalier artists love lions and tigers and bears — anything with teeth and no business being in Paris in the 1800s. No one more than Rosa Bonheur, the smoking, joking, pants-wearing painter who becomes a celebrity, the most famous female artist of her time, by embracing the very things men fear most. You can see one of her lion prints here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/10491/royalty-at-home-rosa-bonheur And her painter's palette, charmingly adorned with a deer: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/4483/palette-rosa-bonheur

From narwhals to nautilus shells, dragon eggs to mermaid hands, the obsession with oddities in the Age of Discovery may seem, well, odd. But did the study of outliers, in the early version of museums, help make us the rational creatures we are today? See the nautilus shell cup from this episode here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/111675/nautilus-shell-cup-germany

Artists have captured unicorns for thousands of years, and for most of that time people thought they were both magical and real. What can an imaginary creature tell us about ourselves? What did we lose when we stopped believing? And why do we still love them anyway? You can see unicorns in art through the ages in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, including this tapestry from the late Middle Ages: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/531/allegorical-millefleurs-tapestry-with-animals-belgium Thanks to Natalie Lawrence and Marguerite Ragnow for sharing their expertise on this episode. Lawrence is a freelance writer with a PhD from the University of Cambridge on exotic monsters in early modern Europe. She is currently writing a book on the history of monsters. Find her work on her blog (https://themanticore.wordpress.com) and her website (https://www.nataliejlawrence.com). Ragnow is a historian and curator of the James Ford Bell Library (https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell) at the University of Minnesota, a collection about trade and exploration, featuring rare books, maps, and manuscripts. She is working on a book about unicorns.

Mermaids had been surfacing in art for thousands of years when, in the 1880s, Edward Burne-Jones began painting them as avatars of a radical new female identity in the corseted Victorian era. A story of desire and danger as legendary as the creatures themselves. You can see one of Burne-Jones' early mermaid paintings, "A Sea-Nymph," at the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/99878/a-sea-nymph-edward-coley-burne-jones. His best-known mermaid work, "The Depths of the Sea," is at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University: https://harvardartmuseums.org/art/298102 Special thanks to Grace Nuth and Sarah Peverley for sharing their expertise on this episode. Grace Nuth is a writer, artist, and fine-art model living in central Ohio. She is the senior editor of Enchanted Living magazine and the co-author of The Faerie Handbook. She regularly writes on a variety of topics at her blog at www.gracenuth.com. Sarah Peverley is a professor of English at the University of Liverpool and a BBC New Generation Thinker. She is writing a cultural history of mermaids, and is the author of several radio programmes, media features, and podcasts about merfolk. You can follow her work at her website (www.sarahpeverley.com), on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Sarah_Peverley, and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sarahpeverley/.

As the page finally turns on 2020, enjoy this bonus episode on the New Year's illustrations made by Winslow Homer for Harper's Weekly magazine in 1869. At a moment surprisingly similar to our own, the American artist captured something of the feeling then, even as his life--and art history--was about to change forever. You can see the illustrations in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/new%20year's%20homer

When the young Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani moves to Paris, in the early 1900s, he soon meets a very talented (and very married) Russian poet. What happens when art and love come together, as the rest of the world is falling apart? You can see one of Modigliani’s iconic Head sculptures here, from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1502/head-amedeo-modigliani (Spoiler alert) You can see a close-up of the secret fossil discussed on the show here: https://new.artsmia.org/stories/art-secrets-the-starfish-in-her-face/

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

Season 7 of The Object starts March 24! Here, a special episode from the archives about Love and Art in capital letters.

When the young Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani moves to Paris, in the early 1900s, he soon meets a very talented (and very married) Russian poet. What happens when Love and Art come together, as the rest of the world is falling apart?

You can see one of Modigliani’s iconic Head sculptures, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1502/head-amedeo-modigliani

(Spoiler alert) You can see a close-up of the secret fossil discussed on the show here.

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