The Lonely Palette (Tamar Avishai)

Dar Williams has been described by The New Yorker as “one of America’s very best singer-songwriters,” but to thirteen-year-old Tamar she was, quite simply, a personal hero: a songwriter whose poetry, poignancy, and humor could capture at once the authentic voices of an inner child, a searching young adult, and a wizened sage. We met in person in 2013 at Dar’s songwriting retreat, and our friendship has been evolving ever since, exploring together the rigors of writing and storytelling through sound and song, and what it means to dip in and out of a creative space as a way of simply getting through the day.

Dar has recently published a book about songwriting that is chock full of philosophical wisdom and applicable nuggets, many of which borne from a decade of retreats. We sat down together to talk about songwriting, art museums, the art of writing songs about art, and specifically her evocative, ambivalent "Mark Rothko Song," which tackles it all head-on.

[2:05] Dar’s relationship with museums and creating a space for poetic thinking.

[8:40] Specific museums, exhibitions, paintings that have inspired Dar’s songs: Dia, “Made in America,” the Fogg.

[11:45] Writing Mark Rothko Song.  Where did Dar go?  Where did Dar really go?

[14:45] The difficulties inherent in writing about art.  What prompted the writing of this song?  Dar’s first encounter with Rothko’s “Untitled (Blue Green)” and the first verse.

[20:15] Diving into the prosody of the song, how the music and lyrics support the voice of the song: finger picking, major to minor, chord to chord, key to key, mood to mood.

[27:41] Return to the lyrics and narrative.  The way that Rothko encourages people to make subjective associations…but then comes the foil of the second verse, creating the contrast between subjective and objective.

[33:52] The song’s dueling (or complementary?) aha moments in the bridge and final verse.  People both love Rothko and struggle to connect to him.  Following the narrator’s journey as she wrestles with seeing something versus knowing something.

[45:47] Appreciating an honest song about art viewing that doesn’t flatten the characters.  Reflecting on the elements of the song that hold up as Dar has gotten older.

[51:19] The similarities between art museums and songwriting retreats: opening up, engaging poetic thinking.

[55:28] Also the hazards of living in a space of poetic thinking, especially as a parent.  The necessary objectivity of the caretaking space.

[1:02:20] The “Five Things” Rule, and whether Mark Rothko might just be the exception that proves the rule.  Tamar meets her Rothko and gives hope to kind pedestrians everywhere.

[1:09:14] Mark Rothko Song in full.

Music Used:
Dar Williams, “When I Was A Boy”; “Mark Rothko Song” (live); “The Beauty Of The Rain”; “Mark Rothko Song” (album version)

Episode Webpage:
bit.ly/3RJm9Ak

Support the Show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Drone Pine,” “Taoudella,” “The Consulate,” “Our Fingers Cold,” “Slider”
Silver Maple, “After the Rain”
Megan Wofford, “Awake”
Yi Nantiro, “Blue Lantern”
Christian Nanzell, “Contraband”
Gunnar Johnsen, “Documents 4”
Fabien Tell, “Liaison”
Arden Forest, “Monastral”
Niclas Gustavsson, “My Kind of Illusion 1”
Niclas Gustavsson, “Reflection 4”

Episode webpage:
bit.ly/3pkhoCI

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

See the Images:
bit.ly/3PMpK3o

Music Used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Slate Tracker,” “Laser Focus,” “The Griffiths,” “Crumbtown,” “Discovery Harbor,” “Leave the TV On,” “Pickers,” “Caraval, “Lady Marie”

Support Hub & Spoke's Independence Fundraiser:
www.hubspokeaudio.org/july4

See the images discussed:
bit.ly/3kQbAii

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “One Little Triumph,” “Sage the Hunter”

Tamar’s exhibition review in the New York Review of Books:
bit.ly/36X64Cg

The Lonely Palette episode on Painting Edo:
bit.ly/3iEFl2Q

The HAM page on Painting Edo
bit.ly/3zrYBY7

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

[2:18]: Love of Picasso and Duchamp.
[3:11]: Where do you start with caricature, the body or the soul?
[5:40]: Drawing with a pen – “no such thing as a mistake.”
[7:09]: The difference between illustration and “fine art”.
[9:55]: Use of the geometric in Steadman’s work, ink spatter, a conversation with the paper.
[13:10]: Coming to the U.S. in 1970, David Hockney “Paranoids”.
[14:30]: Use of photographs and text in drawing.
[15:15]: I, Leonardo, the terror of the blank canvas, and “prorogation”.
[17:53]: Style, “exposing depravity” and being purified by drawing it.
[22:33]: Early career before collaborating with Hunter S. Thompson, alchemy, gonzo.
[29:08]: Favorite faces to draw.
[30:48]: 2020, the pandemic, and finding the birdsong in doom.

Interview Webpage:
bit.ly/38erSJX

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Crumbtown"

Support the Show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The fruits of the Second Annual Year-End Patreon Listener Challenge has us staring directly into the cold dead eyes of the beast! How could this restoration of a forgotten 19th century Spanish fresco have gotten so grotesquely botched, and what does it tell us about the challenges of art restoration, religious iconography, and iconoclasm? And more importantly, Jesus, why do you look like a shark?

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…-restoration

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Sylvestor”, “Mute Steps”, “Mr. Graves”, “Lobo Lobo”, “Lumber Down”, “Cloudy Cider”
Tracie Potochnik, “Cecilia and the Saints”

Episode sponsor:
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely

Support the show! Some more!
www.patreon.com/lonely

See the images:
bit.ly/3omDroO

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Jumbel,” “Turning to You,” “Pastel de Nata,” “Junca,” “Min,” “Basketliner”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Since her arrival on the art scene in the 1960s, legendary art writer Lucy Lippard’s work - searing, novelistic, crisp, and endlessly curious - as well as her insights, activism, entrenchment in the art world, and friendships have secured her role as one of the most important minds in art criticism of her generation.

Now, at 86 years old, all of the stuff that she’s collected along the way – photographs, drawings, relationships, grandchildren – is the subject of her new memoir, or, actually, what she calls “Stuff (Instead of a Memoir).” She joined me to talk about the book, but also more than 60 years of writing about art in the way that centered life. After all, “art,” she often quotes, “is what makes life more interesting than art.” Art is the artists, the world they inhabit, their shared cultural references, their shared understanding of the art world and art history. Their human experiences rendered in paint. The stuff they leave behind.

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Lacquer Groove,” “Hardwood Lullaby”

Episode Webpage

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

This episode was produced in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The exhibition, “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories” is on view until January 17, 2022.

See the images:
bit.ly/3jNT4FZ

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
Blue Dot Sessions, “Moon Bicycle Theme,” “Stucco Blue,” “Coronea,” “Lumber Down,” “Velvet Ladder,” “Gale”

Get tickets to the exhibition:
bit.ly/3GAli0M

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Tamar is alive! The Lonely Palette is alive! But in the year since we last spoke, she's been elbow-deep in audio projects galore - good for the pocketbook, but bad for independent art history podcast productivity. But your patience will be rewarded! And in the meantime, a few announcements:

- Join me and my fellow H&S colleagues at the PRX Podcast Garage in Allson, MA on Wednesday, November 6 for an evening of audio camaraderie. Register here.
- Explore our Hub & Spoke Expo showcase, starting with the first episode of our very first exclusive Expo series, "The Rabbis Go South." (All episodes now available!)

Imagine 16 American rabbis jailed for acting on their beliefs. The Rabbis Go South is a thrilling seven-part narrative podcast that uncovers a true story of Jewish-Black solidarity in St. Augustine, Florida during the Civil Rights Movement. An inspiring tale of hope for a divided world.

The Rabbis Go South was created by documentary filmmakers Amy Geller and Gerald Peary. It’s a presentation of the Hub & Spoke Expo.

Ever have a day when you just feel a little... blocked? Well, sure as God made little green apples, Surrealist René Magritte feels you.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…-of-man-1964

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, "Django's Tiger"
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Roundpine", "Borough", "Building The Sled", "Rate Sheet", "Lick Stick", "Pull Beyond Pull"
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Sponsors:
www.danasaylor.com/retreat
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Tamar met Dan when she was a worshipful high school freshman and he was (to her) an übercool junior who was not only the arts editor of Thoughtprints, the school's art/lit mag, but also spent his free time in the fine art studio, bending the charcoal like Beckmann. Now he's the Director of the Carpenter Center of Visual Arts at Harvard University, she's an art history podcaster, and they reconnected in the Busch-Reisinger galleries in front of Max Beckmann's "Self-Portrait in a Tuxedo" from 1927 to talk about self-portraiture, self-evolution, and the limitations of peaking in high school.

[00:17] - Describing the painting.
[02:35] - What drew Dan to the painting as a teenager.
[06:16] - The ephemera of the cigarette.
[08:17] - Self-portraits in high school.
[09:25] - Drawing in thick, expressive lines.
[11:35] - The self-portrait that doesn't need our validation.
[15:19] - Beckmann isn’t Egon Schiele
[18:58] - Dan's evolving relationship with this painting.
[21:58] - Thoughtprints!

Full transcript:
http://www.thelonelypalette.com/dan-byers-interview

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Greyleaf Willow"

I can't help the way I'm feeling/Goddess of love, please take me to your leader/I can't help, I keep on dancing. - Lady Gaga

The neoplatonic ideal of beauty, the girl on the half-shell, the naked chick riding a clam. Her tilted head and fluttery hair are recognized by everyone and their grandma, but no one - experts included - can explain just why in the heck this painting is so iconic. Shell we take on the challenge?

See the images.

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
Joan Baez, “Diamonds and Rust”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “TwoPound,” “Coulis Coulis,” “Delmendra,” “No Smoking,” “Belle Anette,” “Rue Severine,” “Ranch Hand,” “Pastel de Nata,” “Khfett”
Lady Gaga, “Venus”

Episode sponsor:

The Art of Crime Podcast

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

See the images:
bit.ly/3uaWHta

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “La Inglesa,” “Eggs and Powder,” “Paper Feather,” “Arizona Moon,” ”Lowball,” “Palladian,” “Simple Vale”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

This season, we've got a stellar line-up: Cy Twombly, Lawren Harris, Käthe Kollwitz, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, to name just a few. We've got interviews with the Washington Post's Sebastian Smee, the artist and composer Annea Lockwood, and more. We've got a whole National Gallery residency! So listen and subscribe, rate and review, and fire up your earbuds for another season of looking with your ears.

If you support the work we do, consider becoming a patron, or simply leaving us a tip.

Episode webpage:
bit.ly/3jtcOBl

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Swapping Tubes”
The Kinks, “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”

Support our year-end fundraiser!
bit.ly/3An5jSd

"It's the close focus that draws me into a sound. And then it sort of spreads out and spreads through my body. And I let that happen, and I'm listening in a different way." - Annea Lockwood

The artist and composer Annea Lockwood is not just any musician. She is an artist of sound. She is a composer of art. Her music is performance art, and her art is always, always audio-rich and musical. She sends her microphones into the elements – fire, here, and rivers, in a recent series called Sound Maps, where she captures, among other things, the tonality of the different depths of the water. She loves chanting, tones, drones. She loves what sound does to our body, how we respond to it, how we visualize it. How sound breathes. How we breathe differently around different sounds.

And for me, as an art historian who fell in love with sound, I get it. I think I get it. And this is what today’s conversation is about. Annea joined me to talk about what it means to listen with your body, to experience the silence in all the noise, and the noise in the silence. We talk about the value of musical training versus musical instinct. We talk about how rivers sound different from one another (they really do!). And we explore what an artist from New Zealand who gained prominence in the 1960s burning pianos can teach us about the art of sound, and what she can learn from her 85-year-old self, today.

Episode webpage

Music used:

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Brer Rhetta," “A Common Pause,” "Tanguedo"

Episode sponsors:

Art of Crime

The Seattle Prize

Visual Arts Passage

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Sure, you've seen it a million times in a million memes, but when was the last time you actually stopped to contemplate the incredible power of this Japanese ukiyo-e print? Or for that matter, the incredible power of a wave itself?

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/202…awa-18301831

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Falaal,” “Dirty Wallpaper,” “Ghost Byzantine,” “Moon Bicycle Theme,” “Eleven,” “Clouds at the Gap”
Charles Trenet, “La Mer”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

This episode was produced with support from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Learn more at www.sfmoma.com.

See the images:
bit.ly/31gUSwW

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “The Bus at Dawn,” “Silky,” Drone Pine,” “Tiny Bottles,” “Inamorata,” “Tapoco,” “The Summit,” “Cirrus,” “Derailed,” “Insatiable Toad,” “Dolly and Pad,” “A Pleasant Strike”

John Williams, performed by Itzhak Perlman & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, “Theme from Schindler’s List”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is currently the podcast-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, highlighting five objects from the ongoing exhibition "Women Take the Floor."

This week: you're rooted in place, unable to look away, and questioning everything you thought you know about femininity, self-nourishment, and a woman's right to her own body. Basically, Patty Chang's got you right where she wants you.

See the images:
bit.ly/33DsB4P

Music used:
Lobo Lobo, “Old Ralley”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Flatlands 3rd,” “Louver,” “Sino de Cobre,” “Dorica Theme,” “The Dustbin,” “We Shall Know Speed”

Exhibition site:
www.mfa.org/exhibition/women-take-the-floor

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette, as you've heard so often, is an enormously proud founding member of the Hub & Spoke Audio Collective, a group of fiercely independent, story-driven, mind-expanding podcasts. Since 2017, we've supported each other while forging our own paths, prioritizing craft and humane storytelling above all else.

Now, if you haven't noticed, media in general, and podcasting in particular, is in a space some may generously call post-apocalyptic. But an incredible silver lining is that the industry is now recognizing how important independence is. We've been here all along, and with your support, we're not going anywhere.

Please enjoy a bonus episode of the Hub & Spoke Radio Hour, a tasty sampler of a few of our shows in a dapper audio package. Today's theme is love. As the philosopher Haddaway once asked, what is love? It turns out, love can be anything that stirs the heart: passion, grief, affection, kin. The desire to consume; the poignancy of memory. Here at Hub & Spoke, we want to stretch our arms, and ears, around it all.

This episode is hosted by Lori Mortimer and edited by Tamar Avishai. Production assistance from Nick Andersen. Music by Evalyn Parry, The Blue Dot Sessions, and a kiss of Dionne Warwick.

Listen to the full episodes:
- Rumble Strip, “Forrest Foster Lays Karen to Rest”
- Mementos “Cherie’s Letters”
- Ministry of Ideas, “Consumed”
- The Lonely Palette, “Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Desired Moment (c. 1770)”

You can also share the love by supporting our Valentine’s Day fundraiser: www.hubspokeaudio.org/love

Powder those wigs and ungird those loins: today we're diving deep into the curves, pastels, and licentious yearnings of a ridiculously saucy little style known as Rococo.

See the Images:
http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/9/8/episode-33-jean-honor-fragonard-the-desired-moment-c-1770

Music Used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Mknt”, “The Big Ten”, “Vernouillet”, “Swapping Tubes”, “Line Etching”, “Fern and Andy”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Sponsor:
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

It isn't 17th century Dutch art if we're not going so deeply into Rembrandt's soul and so close to the meticulous details of his virtuosic portraiture that we make the guards nervous.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…enburgh-1632

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Lovers Hollow” “Tailrunner,” “Entwined Oddity,” “Lupi,” “Thannoid,” “Camp Fermin”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Thanks to our episode sponsors:
www.thegreatcourses.com/lonely
www.visualartspassage.com

[2:29]: Introductions.
[3:41] Why choose these artists as your pseudonyms?
[5:37]: The origin story of the Guerrilla Girls (and their font!).
[8:17]: How has the group changed and evolved, both internally and in terms of its mission? Has progress been made?
[15:49]: The joys and pitfalls of all-women shows. Is “woman artist” a problematic phrase?
[23:18]: Is there something that innately connects women artists?
[27:43]: Reflecting on our inflamed current moment, and whether things are indeed getting better.
[34:33]: How do we get people excited about artists they’re not familiar with, and who fall outside the established canon?
[38:16]: How to reach out to people who disagree with you.
[42:47]: How the Guerrilla Girls changed the rules for artists who came after them.

Follow the Guerrilla Girls:
www.guerrillagirls.com

Interview webpage:
bit.ly/3lGETBi

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Pinky"

We're trying a little something different today: what happens when Disney scares the pants off you as a kid, and then, in mining the roots of your existential dread, you realize that Henri Matisse and Igor Stravinsky both had their pants scared off too, and that explains a whole heck of a lot about early 20th century modernism? Let's find out together.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…e-revolution

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
Igor Stravinsky, “The Rite of Spring”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Monder”, “House of Grendel”, “Thread Caramb”, Emmit Sprak”, “Lubber”, Ervira”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Be a part of history! The 2nd Annual Year-End Patreon Listener Challenge is officially ON:
www.thelonelypalette.com/2018listenerchallenge

Sponsors:
www.inboundbos.com/
www.bumblejax.com/

Yoko Ono. You may have heard of her. She hooked up with that musician that time. Just under the wire, we end Women's History Month with a peek beneath Ono's art and reputation - and why we need to reconsider both.

See the images.

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Plaster Combo", "Valantis", "Strange Dog Walk", "Hundred Mile", "Down at the Bank""
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

This episode was produced in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

See the images:
bit.ly/3tXx80o

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Pigpaddle Creek,” “Temperance,” “Highway 94,” “Floating Whist,” “Danver County,” “Mr. Graves,” “Willow Belle”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

What goes up into the sky must come down into the earth, and fortunately for us we’ve got Sarah Sze, mistress of materials, memory, and meaning, helming the journey.

This episode was produced with support from Storm King Art Center.

See the images:
bit.ly/3NRnGmr

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Plate Glass,” “Leatherbound,” “The Onyx,” “Silent Ocean,” “ZigZag Heart,” “Curious Case,” “On Top of It”
Evan Blanch, “Where The Streets Have No Name (Instrumental)” (U2 cover)

Episode sponsor:
www.visualartspassage.com

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is on break until November 2019, so every Wednesday in October, a different Hub & Spoke producer will take the host's chair to present an episode of their show that Tamar is especially fond of. Enjoy this month's podcast petri dish of art, culture, history, and society, and subscribe to any and all Hub & Spoke shows at www.hubspokeaudio.org.

This week:
Open Source with Christopher Lydon is a local conversation with global attitude.  "The Bauhaus in Your House," which originally aired on 90.9 WBUR in April 2019, is an exploration of art, architecture, and design with Tamar Avishai, Peter Chermayeff, Ann Beha, and Sebastian Smee. The Bauhaus was the art school in Germany that created the look of the twentieth century. We just live in it: loving its white-box affordability, or hating its stripped, blank, glass-and-steel uniformity, the world around. It’s the IKEA look in the twenty-first century, the look of Chicago skyscrapers and now Chinese housing towers, the look of American kitchens and probably the typeface on your emails. It was the less-is-more school that made ornament very nearly a crime. It stood, and stands, for a few big ideas still hotly contested.

Listen to Open Source at www.radioopensource.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Next week:
The Constant and Michelangelo

Listen to The Lonely Palette archives!
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes

Support The Lonely Palette!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Artists Explored:
Agnes Martin, Jackson Pollock, Mark Bradford, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd

See the Images:
addison.andover.edu/AboutUs/Pages/Podcast.aspx

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “The Zeppelin,” “Pinky,” “Flattered,” “A Little Powder,” “Arizona Moon,” “Daymaze,” “The Summit,”
Jason Leonard, “Ritual Six”

Further Listening:
The Lonely Palette on Jackson Pollock: bit.ly/3eUQdsE
The Lonely Palette on Jasper Johns: bit.ly/3hDFq82

Support the Show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Grab a parasol, put your monkey on a leash, and come spend Sunday in the Park with George, exploring how a canvas this monumental and as frozen as Dippin' Dots can help us better understand the world in his day, in Cameron Frye's, and in our own.

See the images:

https://bit.ly/2L0qPCg

Music used:

Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Feisty and Tacky,” “Stack Me Up,” “Base Camp,” “Thannoid,” “PolyCoat,” “Slow Rollout”

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show:

www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Episode sponsor:

www.evanblanch.com/lonely

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Daymaze,” “Plate Glass,” “Discovery Harbor,” “Wahre,” “Checkered Blue,” “Quarry Clouds,” “Enter the Room”

See the images:
bit.ly/3sJUXWu

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Let's explore America the Beautiful, the Complicated, and the Contradictory, where a purple mountain has no sense of its own majesty, through the lens of the quintessential dorm room poster photographer Ansel Adams.

See the images:
http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2019/3/8/episode-37-ansel-adams-the-tetons-and-snake-river-grand-teton-national-park-wyoming-1942

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Vibrant Canopy”, “Bridgewalker”, “The Yards”, “Silver Lanyard”, “Velvet Ladder”
Tamar Avishai, “Michigan”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Sponsors:
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely
www.visualartspassage.com

See the images:
bit.ly/45wNrSb

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Thread Indigo,” “Monder,” “Tall Journey,” “Stephi,” “Morning Glare”
Helen Reddy, “I Am Woman” (performed at the Mobilize for Women's Lives Rally in Washington in 1989)

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Episode sponsors:
Jay Handy Financial Services (for artists!)
www.signalpointinvest.com/team/jay-handy/

Altenew
www.altenew.com
Discount code: TAMAR10%OFF

This is a free edition of The Lonely Palette Reads, a perk that will be going out exclusively to Patreon patrons in the future. To become a patron, go to patreon.com/lonelypalette and sign up at any level of support. Thank you!

Got suggestions for other intimidating-until-read-aloud-texts for future episodes of The Lonely Palette Reads? Email the show at tamar@thelonelypalette.com.

Music used:
Glenn Miller, “Tuxedo Junction”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Belle Anette”

Our website:
www.thelonelypalette.com

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is currently the podcast-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, highlighting five objects from the ongoing exhibition "Women Take the Floor."

This week: we go beneath the flowers, the unibrow, the broken body, and the shadow of her marriage, to reframe the fame of Frida Kahlo: the Cult Icon of Humanness.

See the images:
bit.ly/39qX739

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Jat Poure,” “Li Fonte,” “Clouds at the Gap,” “Master,” “When the Guests Have Left,” “Curiously and Curiously,” “Thread Ceylon,” “Gondola Blue”
Tinpan Orange, “Song for Frida Kahlo”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Music used:
Glenn Miller, “Tuxedo Junction”
The Blue Dot Sessions, "No Smoking," "Mercurial Vision"

Our website:
www.thelonelypalette.com

For more information on the exhibition, visit:
addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/90/…es/default.aspx.

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Waterbourne"

In this special episode of The Lonely Palette, I’m sharing the episode I made for the PRX limited-run podcast series "Monumental," which interrogates the state of monuments across the greater U.S. and what their future says about where we are now and where we’re going.

This was the concluding episode, exploring how some monuments are larger than life, dwarfing us, making us feel small relative to the grandness of history. But what if a monument was human-scaled? What if it made us aware of our bodies in space? We don’t often think about the design choices that go into making a monument, but more and more, a new generation of artists and designers are reimagining what a monument can look and feel like, and the kinds of stories they can hold.

This episode takes us to Montgomery, Alabama to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, to Shreveport, Louisiana, to the South Side of Chicago, to Navajo Nation in Arizona. It explores how many American monuments to slavery took inspiration from Holocaust memorials in Germany. And it looks at decentralized memorials that are using technology to help bring monuments to the past into the future.

Listen to the Monumental podcast series.

See the images.

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

On October 10, 2018, both the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Cecilia Vicuña herself were generous enough to give me the opportunity to take a few moments away from the installation of "Disappeared Quipu" and interview Vicuña. We talked about bridging the masculinity of Land Art and the femininity of Fiber Art, the origins of Vicuña's life as an artist, and how her own awareness has evolved throughout her career.

Support the show!
http://www.thelonelypalette.com/2018listenerchallenge

"The only thing permanent is change." - Felix Gonzalez-Torres

There is no way around it. The work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a gay, Cuban-American artist who responded to - and died during - the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, is sad. His work is a memorial, both to a lost generation and to his own partner, Ross. Yet it is through these seemingly banal, industrial, or every day materials, and the powerful metaphor that they represent, that we can best get to the root of what loss can mean. And, maybe, healing as well.

See the images.

Music used:

The Blue Dot Sessions, “A Little Powder,” “Lerennis,” “Taoudella,” “The Melt,” “Rafter”

Open Book, “Second Chance”

Episode sponsors:

Art of Crime

The Seattle Prize

Visual Arts Passage

Smartist App

With extra special thanks to Martin Young.

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

 In the 1950s and 60s, Coenties Slip—an obscure street on the lower tip of Manhattan overlooking the East River—was home to some of the most iconic artists in history, and who would define American Art during their time there: Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, these artists created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation.

Prudence Peiffer is the kind of art historian who understands the importance of context and place, and her book, “The Slip: The New York City Street that Changed American Art Forever” provides the kind of rich context and human detail that textbooks could only dream of. She joined me to discuss the history of these artists, why we have such a hard time seeing artists as people, the friction between accessible artists and their inaccessible art, why watching Robert Indiana eat a mushroom for 39 minutes is actually totally beautiful, and what it means to authentically nudge art history towards inclusion.

See the images
 

Music used:
The Blue Dot Session, “Skyforager”
Rufus Wainwright, “11:11”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Thick woolen knots, suspended from the ceiling, alive with projections and immersed in sound. You might not realize that Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña has woven together your awareness of your own awareness, but maybe you just needed some help translating it.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…d-quipu-2018

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “The Face of the Thrush”, “We Build With Rubber Bands”, “Vdet”, “Between Stones”, “Cover Letter”, “Gentle Son”

Support the show!
www.thelonelypalette.com/2018listenerchallenge

Episode sponsor:
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely

Artists Explored:
Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Robert Frank, Berenice Abbott, Charles Sheeler, Martin Wong

See the Images:
bit.ly/34AE9Xw

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “The Zeppelin,” “Towboat Theme,” “Cat’s Eye,” “PlainGrey,” “Dorica Theme,” “Tranceless”

Further Listening:
The Lonely Palette on Edward Hopper: bit.ly/3wyqg8Y

Support the Show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Artists Explored:
Lalla Essaydi, Laurie Simmons, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Sally Mann, Dawoud Bey

See the Images:
addison.andover.edu/AboutUs/Pages/Podcast.aspx

Music Used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “The Zeppelin,” “Dirty Wallpaper,” “Polycoat,” “Pastel de Nata,” “Turning to You,” “The Consulate”

Further Listening:
The Lonely Palette on Mary Cassatt: bit.ly/3uFM9Bj

Support the Show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Betcha never realized how deeply color colored your world - and the world - until you found yourself dancing down the diagonal of this showstopping print.

This episode was produced in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums. The exhibition "Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities" is on view until July 31, 2022.

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Valley VX,” “Forgot His Jam,” “Dear Myrtle,” “Lakeside Path,” “Paramo Ocho,” “White Limit,” “Bivly”

See the images:
bit.ly/3MzWc47

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Trying to capture time in art is like trying to pin a wave upon the sand or hold a moonbeam in your hand. So leave it to Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to do it so effectively by taking us to the Golden Age of Cinema.

"Seeking Stillness" is on view at the MFA, Boston until September 3, 2018.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…nd-1993-1993

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Cash Cow", "Aourourou", "A Little Powder", "Delicious", "Astrisx", "Bliste"
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Today's sponsors:
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lonely
www.theconversationpod.com/

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

See the images:
bit.ly/2WuV2CQ

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Long and Low Cloud,” “Hakodate Line,” “Cornicob,” “Sylvestor,” “Di Breun,” “The Silver Hatch,” “Speaker Joy”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is currently the podcast-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, highlighting five objects from the ongoing exhibition "Women Take the Floor."

This week: let's join 104-year-old Cuban-American Hard Edge painter Carmen Herrera in celebrating the straight line, not just the shortest distance between two points, but the most infinitely beautiful as well.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/202…de-no-1-1962

Music used:
Lobo Lobo, “Old Ralley”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Throughput,” “Scallat,” “Rally,” “Where It All Happened,” “The Consulate”

Exhibition site:
www.mfa.org/exhibition/women-take-the-floor

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

See the images:
bit.ly/3FX0S3H

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Lerennis,” “Lissa,” “Ice Tumbler,” “Mr. Graves,” “Throughput,” “A Rush of Clear Water,” “Pinky,” “The Green Room”
Vivaldi, “Summer”

Support our year-end fundraiser!
bit.ly/3An5jSd

Whoever said the devil was in the details clearly had a thing for Northern Renaissance portraiture.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…ortrait-1434

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Our Son the Potter,” “Bundt,” “Pacing,” “Secret Pocketbook,” “Oriel,” “Floretin Interlude”
Poddington Bear, “Clay”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show:
patreon.com/lonelypalette

“It is not about fixing or mending, but about celebrating the vulnerability of the object and ultimately myself.” - Yee Sookyung

Shattered porcelain is impossible to repair. As impossible as fully, and accurately, reconstructing the past. But who needs that pressure? What if, instead of tossing those shards in the dustbin of history, we acknowledged that the thing will never be what it once was? Maybe then we appreciate the beauty, and the human resilience, of what new things it could be, in the now.

See the images.

Music used:

Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Littl Jon,” “The Dustbin,” “BlueGarden,” “Nesting,” “A Rush of Clear Water,” “A Common Pause”

Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

On July 29, 2019 (the day after the birth of my son!), host and producer Danielle Monroe posted this interview we had recorded the week before for her podcast "Artists of Camberville." This was one of best conversations I've ever had about the origins of "The Lonely Palette" and the trials and tribulations of art-viewing, meaning-making, script-writing, audio podcasting about the visual, and, like, a little bit about The Bachelorette. Enjoy!

00:10: Introduction.
00:41: Laying the groundwork for starting "The Lonely Palette".
4:18: Clip from "Episode 24: Meditations on Mark Rothko".
6:12: Permission to slow down in front of a work of art. What is the best way to be present in an art museum? Both amateurs and experts have a hard time with this.
9:12: Is allowing for any reaction to an artwork “uneducated”? Exploring songwriting and meaning-making with a little help from Dar Williams and Mark Rothko.
14:30: As a podcaster, the difference between thinking like a radio producer and thinking like an art historian.
18:51: The desired takeaway from "The Lonely Palette"? Art history makes for a damn good story. Not scary stuff, just human stuff.
21:08: Can you do a museum wrong? Or maybe just…unpleasantly?
22:26: The weekend course that launched a podcast that people actually want to be on!
24:39: What would I do differently if I had to do it all again? How the depth of the episode scripts has evolved.
27:57: The Hub & Spoke garage story: attempting success due to the appearance of success.
31:44: Wrapping up, and fortunately (?) not going into labor on mic.

Original episode post:
https://daniellehmonroe.com/ep7/

Listen to "Artists of Camberville" wherever you get your podcasts, and please do leave a rating and a review!

Support "The Lonely Palette" and keep the kiddo in fresh diapers:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is currently the podcast-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, highlighting five objects from the ongoing exhibition "Women Take the Floor."

This week: you’ve never noticed the carnality of the body you live in, and the rawness of the emotions that live inside that body, until you find yourself spun into French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois’s web.

See the images:
bit.ly/3axRwIY

Music used:
Lobo Lobo, “Old Ralley”

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Tiptoe Treadline,” “Gusty Hollow,” “Stately Shadows",” “Jog to the Water,” “Pinky”

Exhibition site:
www.mfa.org/exhibition/women-take-the-floor

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Welcome to the cult of the punk: where the skin is flayed, the contortions are twisty, and the struggle is real. So why can't we get enough?

See the images.

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"The Blue Dot Sessions, "Taoudella", "Fifteen Street", "Smooth Stone", "Scraper", "Then A Gambling Problem", "Warm Fingers", "Chrome and Wax"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Can a comic strip be elevated to fine art? Or is Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein just plain dotty?

See the images.

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Le Marais", "The Molerat", "Lemon and Melon", "Via Verre", "Lord Weasel", "Entrap"
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…-dos-mujeres

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Jat Poure,” “Li Fonte,” “Clouds at the Gap,” “Master,” “When the Guests Have Left,” “Curiously and Curiously,” “Thread Ceylon,” “Gondola Blue”
Tinpan Orange, “Song for Frida Kahlo”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Episode sponsors:
www.thegreatcourses.com/lonely
www.visualartspassage.com/palette

See the images:

bit.ly/3ChhuAE

Music used:

Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Bedroll,” “A Common Pause,” “Palms Down,” “Desmontes,” “Delamine,” “Greylock,” “Angel Tooth,” “Dear Myrtle”

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Episode sponsor:

The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments: bit.ly/43Qp1SJ

Support the show!

www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Register for our Hub & Spoke live show in Woodstock, VT on June 15:

normanwilliams.org/events/podcasts…istening-event/

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/202…ost-pandemic

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Noe Noe,” “A Certain Lightness,” “Algea Trio,” “Kilkerrin,” “Gullwing Sailor,” “Two Dollar Token,” “Silent Flock”
Billie Holiday, “Blue Moon”

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

In this special episode, we listen to the audio from the live event at the PRX Podcast Garage, "Keepers of the Culture: A Celebration of Meduna and Holmes," which I had the privilege of participating in at the end of January. In it I chat with collage artist Ekua Holmes, play her some audio I produced on her work, and then we listen to art historian Barry Gathier give the curator talk to end all curator talks on art, artists, viewers, and why we do what we do.

Special thanks to PRX, the PRX Podcast Garage, and WGBH.

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Spark"
Rod Stewart, "Every Picture Tells A Story"

Charlotte's book:
amzn.to/3TksKDl

Episodes referenced:
Anselm Kiefer: bit.ly/31gUSwW
Sarah Sze: bit.ly/3NRnGmr

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Join the OG Ninja Turtle as he guides you into the Renaissance by way of an exquisite tour of heaven.

See the images.

Music Used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
Lobo Loco, "Piano Cora Theme"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "UpUpUp and Over", "Slow Line Stomp", "Lakeside Path", "Perspiration", "Threads and Veils", "Moon Bicycle Theme"
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

The Lonely Palette is currently the podcast-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, highlighting five objects from the ongoing exhibition "Women Take the Floor."

This week: there's no better way to combat a world holding its breath than with a deep lungful of fresh Southwestern air, care of America's most misattributed painter of vagina flowers, Georgia O'Keeffe.

See the images:
bit.ly/39QXvsJ

Music used:
Lobo Lobo, “Old Ralley”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Cold and Hard,” “Georgia Overdrive,” “Towboat Theme,” “Noe Noe,” “Raskt Landsby,” “Watercool Quiet,” “Cottonwoods”
The Nields, “Georgia O”

Exhibition site:
www.mfa.org/exhibition/women-take-the-floor

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Episode webpage:
bit.ly/3COhnOp

Music used:
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Balti”
Mandy Patinkin, “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday in the Park with George

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Your Listener Patreon Challenge has been accepted! And now, let's dive together into kitsch: the frequency low enough for us all to hear.

See the images.

Music used:
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, "Rose Ornamental," "Flattered," "Arizona Moon," "Laser Focus," "Alchemical," "Two in the Back," "Maisie Dreamer," "Gullwing Sailor," "Maldoc"
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

“In the end, what interests me is the way art connects with life. Because otherwise, I don’t quite understand what it’s for.” - Sebastian Smee

Sebastian Smee has been the art critic for the Washington Post since 2018, but has written extensively about art for every publication you can think of, from here to his native Australia, and winning a Pulitzer prize for criticism along the way. Both his prose and his love of the work leaps off the page and into your lap, offering a guiding hand past the velvet rope, not just for his readers, but for himself: he’s a critic who is constantly looking inward, curious about his own responses to artworks, and what it can teach him about teaching us.

Sebastian joined me to discuss his latest book, “Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism,” as well as writers on writing, becoming an expert about a movement on deadline, how looking back at the muddiness of a historical moment can help us understand the muddiness of ours, and what happens when art critics are themselves at a loss for the words to express why they just love this or that painting so darn much.

See the images.

Music used:

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Town Market,” “Night Light,” “Brass Buttons”

Episode sponsor:

The Art of Crime Podcast

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

The later work of Russian ex-pat turned German Expressionist turned indispensable Bauhaus faculty member Wassily Kandinsky is a lot like the Bauhaus itself: a disparate collection of pieces parts that ends up assembling itself into a transparent, efficient, powerfully cohesive, form-follows-function whole.

This episode was a collaboration with WBUR's Radio Open Source: check them out at radioopensource.org, and listen to their show on the Bauhaus Centennial on April 11, 2019 at 9:00pm EDT on 90.9 WBUR Boston.

See the images:
www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…ntitled-1922

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
Thelonious Monk, “Misterioso”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Highway 94”, “Boston Landing”, “Junca”, “Unfolding Plot”, “Micro”, “Betty Dear”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Episode sponsor:
www.shedunnitshow.com

Happy 7th birthday, The Lonely Palette! We're ringing in our itch with an quick update on next season, which starts in June, and a recording of our live show at On Air Fest, which was held in Brooklyn this past February.

Please enjoy this revamped and refreshed episode of Mary Kelly's "Post-Partum Document," smash that subscribe button, and we'll see you next month.

See the episode images:
bit.ly/411KA0F

Support the show:
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

"My line does not illustrate. It is the sensation of its own realization." - Cy Twombly

Critics have described the work of consummate scribbler Cy Twombly as at once "barely there" and overly academic, but what about us art civilians? What is it about these half-baked scraps, scratch, and scrawl that speaks to our own creative impulses, our own inner children dying to grab the crayon and crush the tip in an ecstatic series of fat, juicy loopdeloops?

See the images.

Music used:

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Inessential,” “Tiny Putty,” “A Burst of Light,” Palms Down,” “Parade Shoes,” “City Limits”

Episode sponsor:

The Art of Crime Podcast

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Somewhere between the life of the mind and the boots on the ground sits Pop artist Claes Oldenburg, who wants us to see not only that both of those worlds are one and the same, but that there's value, and even beauty, to our stuff, and that maybe we can finally let ourselves admit it.

See the images:
bit.ly/3hcHjVq

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Cradle Rock,” “Sylvestor,” “A Little Powder,” “Our Only Lark,” “Town Market,” “Contrarian,” “The Rampart”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Episode sponsor:
sfosguide.com/

Support the show!
www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

See the images:
bit.ly/3iNqpTY

Music used:
Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger”
The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen"
Charles Daab, “Irish and Scotch melodies (take 2)”
The Blue Dot Sessions, “Highway 430,” “Angel Tooth,” “Di Breun,” “Rainy Day Drone,” “No Smoking,” “Cornicob,” “Tarte Tatin,” “Vernouillet,” “Thread of Clouds,” “Set the Tip Jar,” “Homin Brer”
Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

Support our year-end fundraiser!
bit.ly/3An5jSd

Episode sponsor:
www.visualartspassage.com/palette

Art is everywhere. Why shouldn't it be for everyone, no matter how fluent you are in art history? This podcast says it should. 

Music used: 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Cirrus", "The Spills", "The Zeppelin" 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

Doctor Turtle, "Marty Ladies and Gentlemen" 

Dave Depper, "All the Pieces Come Together" 

Django Reinhardt, "Dinah"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Just how did Cezanne keep that fruit from tumbling all over the place? We have theories. 

See the images

Music Used: 

Django Reinhardt, "Dinah"

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Stale Case”, “Tripoli”, “Andelo”, “This Horse Ithica” 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Christian Boltanski tackles memory and death. We tackle Christian Boltanski. 

See the image

Music used: The Blue Dot Sessions, “That Horse Ithica”, “The Terrarium”, “That River Wide” The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” Tri-Tachyon, “Little Lily Swing”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

While John Singleton Copley is busying himself with past and present art historical styles, Samuel Adams is getting all up in your biz.

See the image

Music used:

Tri-Tachyon, “Little Lily Swing” 

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Decompression”, “Turning on the Lights” 

Velella Velella, “Hard Egg Timer” 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Reynold Philipsek, "Intro and Nuages" (Django Reinhardt cover)

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Hey! You there! Don't walk by this seemingly-boring painting. You might miss the 19th century. 

See the image

Music used: 

Reynold Philipsek, "Intro and Nuages" (Django Reinhardt cover) 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, “A Burst of Light”, “The Silver Hatch” 

Lee Rosevere, “Wandering” 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Chris Zabriskie, “Cylinder Four”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Elbow-deep in trauma, Andy Warhol plays with repetition and bores us into action. 

See the image

Music used: 

Chris Zabriskie, “Cylinder Four” 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

Ketsa, “Catching Feathers” 

The Blue Dot Sessions, “Drifting Spade” 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Paolo Pavan, “Blue Night Dance”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

You think your seven-year-old could paint this indecipherable abstract Cubist painting? Well, it's not abstract, it's totally understandable, and... he couldn't. 

See the image

Music used: 

Paolo Pavan, “Blue Night Dance” 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Balti", "The Rampart", "Steadfast", "Beast on the Soil" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Heftone Banjo Orchestra, "Peaceful Henry"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

After centuries in the shadows, it's light's turn to shine. 

See the image

 Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "The Spinnet", "Lahaina", "Discovery Harbor", "Santre" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

This big bully is about to give you a lesson in contrasts you won't soon forget. Featuring Dar Williams! 

See the image

Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Turning", "Downhill Racer", "Cloud Line" 

Lee Rosevere, "Reflections" 

Dar Williams and the WASTM Good Times House Choir, "The Water is Wide"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

The German Expressionists get hot. Nazis get bothered. 

See the image

Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

David Szeszlay, "Night Surfing" 

Michael Howard, "The Tallest Man in Idaho (Instrumental)" 

Jason Leonard, "Ritual Twelve" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Stilt", "Manele", "The Provisions" Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

Think abstraction is totally inaccessible? Pull up a chair. 

See the image

Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "The Provisions", "A Certain Lightness", "A Rush of Clear Water", "Brass Buttons" 

Lee Rosevere, "Puzzle Pieces" 

Tamar Avishai, "Grid (after Sol LeWitt's Drawing Series)"

Support the show by becoming a patron or by just sending us a tip.

The darlings, the crown jewels, the moneymakers. Just what the heck is it about these girls?! 

See the image

Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Brass Buttons", "Heliotrope", "Vittoro", "Filing Away" 

Lobo Loco, "White Shapes Beauty" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Eric Dolphy, "Out To Lunch"

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Dust off your verbs, it's time to make sense out of chaos. 

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Music used: 

Eric Dolphy, "Out To Lunch" 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Parade Shoes", "Inessential", "City Limits", "Lacquer Groove" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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Welcome to Edward Hopper's specific, yet schematic, love letter to the alienation of the modern American city. 

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Lacquer Groove", "In Passage", "Cats Eye", "Tranceless", "Simple Melody", "Flagger" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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The gospel according to Gauguin is basically an existential hodgepodge that you and I were never supposed to understand. 

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Flagger", "Pacing", "Open Flames", "One Quiet Conversation" 

Mathieu Lamontagne & Emmanuel Toledo, "Point de vue" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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One man's trash is Ghanaian fiber artist El Anatsui's treasure. 

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Music used: 

Podington Bear, "Down and Around" 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Coronea", "Mercurial Vision", "Stipple", "Our Quiet Company", "Step In Step Out" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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You've just had a manic break, cut off a piece of your ear, and gifted it to a prostitute. Who ya gonna call? Your get-a-grip postman friend, of course!

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Step In Step Out", "Scratcher", "Over the Fence", "Scalloped", "On Belay" 

Lee Rosevere, "Curiosity" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

Podington Bear, "A1 Rogue"

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On the occasion of its hundredth birthday, we dive into the art world's greatest joke (splash!). 

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Music Used: 

Podington Bear, "A1 Rogue", "In My Head" 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "In The Back Room", "Rafter", "FasterFasterBrighter", "Nesting", "Lamplist" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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Because it's hard to look directly into the sun. Or yourself. 

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Sunday Lights", "Town Market", "Rapids", "Liptis", "Ballast", "Masonry" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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Take a load off as you relax into this Song Dynasty masterpiece. You're going to be here for a while. 

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Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Masonry", "Exceter Lask", "Hickory Interlude", "Copper Halls", "Feathering", "Inside the Paper Crane", "Doghouse" Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees”

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In this special episode, we look at the exhibition Memory Unearthed: Henryk Ross’s Photographs of the Lodz Ghetto, and explore the Lodz ghetto specifically, Holocaust photography more generally, and the role our need for a good story has played in shaping our understanding of both. 

Memory Unearthed was on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston until July 30, 2017.

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Music Used: The Blue Dot Sessions, "Doghouse", "Drone Pine", "Drone Birch", "3rd Chair", "Our Fingers Cold"

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So. It appears that art history has a woman problem. 

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Waterborne", "Pat Dog", "Partly Sage", "Illway", "Turning to You", "Horizon Liner", "Soothe" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees” 

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Ceci n'est pas un target, and other bewildering and profound pronouncements by conceptual neo-Dadaist (with abstract Pop Art sensibilities) Jasper Johns. 

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 Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Soothe", "Helado", "Chapel Donder", "The Summit" 

Jason Leonard, "Ritual Six" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

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The Lonely Palette is thrilled to announce that we're a founding member of Hub & Spoke, a brand spanking new collective of Boston-centric, idea-driven podcasts. To kick things off, we're proud to present an episode of Soonish, the podcast about the future, hosted by veteran technology journalist Wade Roush. This episode, "Can Technology Save Museums?" not only asks some important questions about the future of art museums, but features me telling The Lonely Palette's origin story (spoiler: I say puke a lot). Learn more about Soonish and Hub & Spoke: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2017/10/24/special-episode-10-introducing-hub-spoke-by-way-of-soonish Music used: The Blue Dot Sessions, "When In The West", "Cases to Rest"

At the intersection of past and future sits a pack of hormonal dudes punching each other and making beautiful art. 

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 Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

Podington Bear, "Kaleidoscope" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Chase and We Follow", "The Telling", "Trelaga", "Thirteens" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees"

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Whether you think Mark Rothko is the portal to spiritual transcendence or emotional-ambulance-chasing bunk, let's take the necessary time to explore his work without feeling like our souls are at stake. 

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Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "A Simple Blur", "Thematic", "Cases to Rest", "Plate Grayscale", "Drone Thistle," "Sage the Hunter" 

Dar Williams, "Mark Rothko Song" 

Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elysees" 

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Our lady of the hour, muse of Dan Brown, satisfier of bucket lists, those eyes, that smile, La Gioconda, El Hefe. Just in time for the holidays, we bring you a super-sized episode on a super-sized love affair with a dinky little portrait. 

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 Music used: 

The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" 

The Blue Dot Sessions, "Tar and Spackle", "Welcome Home Sonny", "Caprese", "Tiny Putty", "Festering", "Inamorata", "Sunset at Sandy Isle", "Spins and Never Falls" 

Nat King Cole, "Mona Lisa"

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