Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

For this week‘s Fun Fact Friday mini episode, learn a little bit about the smiley face. The iconic image of a yellow circle with two dots and a smile actually has a surprising history. The design was commissioned to boost morale around the office at an insurance company and almost instantly became a sensation. While the image is world famous, Harvey Ball, the graphic designer who created it was largely forgotten. While one might expect he would have made millions of dollars off of his popular design, he actually only made $45 for the commissioned piece. He did go on to create World Smile Day which is dedicated to spreading positivity, smiles and acts of kindness. His foundation licenses his Smiley design to raise money for worthwhile charities. If you are looking for a way to celebrate World Smile Day on October 1, 2021, try making your own smiley or emoji. Art teachers can find a video lesson based on Harvey Ball on the teacher resources page of www.WhoARTedPodcast.com Reach out or follow Kyle Wood on social media. Instagram: Wood.Art.Ed Twitter: @WoodArtEd Email: WhoARTedPodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Takashi Murakami is one of the most prominent contemporary Japanese painters. I spoke with Toki from the podcast Japan Explained to get some insights into Murakami and how his work is a reflection of modern and traditional Japanese culture. Takashi Murakami is well known for his Superflat artwork. The Superflat movement was named for an exhibition of Murakami‘s work in the year 2000. Murakami‘s paintings often utilize outlines and flat colors that give the work the visually flat sense similar to traditional woodcut prints. Simultaneously the Superflat movement represents a flattening of society as barriers between cultures are broken down. In this episode, we discussed Murakami‘s background as well as his paintings of Mr. Dobs, a recurring figure in many of his works that serves as a sort of alter ego for the artist. As always you can find pictures of the work discussed along with other resources on website www.WhoARTedPodcast.com Keep in touch by emailing WhoARTedPodcast@gmail.com and if you like the podcast, please tell your friends, rate and review it wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jackson Pollock grew up in a family that struggled financially. He was expelled from two different high schools and bounced around doing odd jobs early in his adulthood. When Peggy Guggenheim started to collect his work, it was like Jackson Pollock won the lottery. With success in the fine art world, came financial success and one of the most interesting legacies of Jackson Pollock is his ability to pay it forward. In the 1990s, a woman bought a painting at a thrift store for $5. She was actually going to sell it at a garage sale later when it was identified as a Pollock original leading to a raise in the price from $5 to $50,000,000. This type of thing has actually happened more than once, so be sure to keep an eye out for hidden treasures in thrift stores and garage sales. If you like Who ARTed, please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends. You can find more information, images and other resources at www.whoartedpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the season opener, I was joined by Garret McCorkle of the podcast No Country for History. His podcast focuses on obscure bits of American history so we focused on an awesome, but largely forgotten American painter. Janet Sobel may not be a household name, but her work was amazing, innovative and influential. While Jackson Pollock is credited with inventing the drip painting method and pioneering the approach of all over painting, Sobel did it first. Not only did Sobel employ these methods about a year before Pollock, he was aware of her work. He saw Sobel‘s work in a gallery and commented about how she influenced him. Sadly, Janet Sobel moved away from New York and her rise in the art world was quickly halted. Hear all about her life and career as well as our discussion of her painting Milky Way. As always, you can find a picture of the work at www.whoartedpodcast.com You can follow Kyle Wood on Instagram (Wood.Art.Ed) and Twitter (@WoodArtEd). You can email WhoARTedPodcast@gmail.com to share your connections, corrections, suggest topics for future episodes etc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am wrapping up this season with the conclusion to my Arts Madness Tournament. Over the last 6 weeks, voters have narrowed the field from 64 down to 1 ultimate artist. I really appreciated everyone who took the time to participate. Hopefully you have learned more about some of your favorite artists and discovered some new ones. This episode is rebroadcasting the episode on the tournament's winner.  Look for new episodes in your podcast feed when season 3 starts in the fall and as always you can find more at www.whoartedpodcast.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world with an expansive collection of some of the greatest masterpieces ever created. Interestingly, it did not start out that way. The building actually started as a medieval fortress. It had a moat, walls and a fortified tower in the center. Of course as Paris expanded, the fortifications moved to the exterior of the city and the Louvre was converted to a royal residence in the 14th century. The fortress was mostly demolished and extensive renovations were underway but people got distracted with the whole hundred years war going on and the Louvre basically was dormant for some time. In 1527, King Francois changed all that. He was a poet, a patron of the arts and he built up quite the collection. He acquired the Mona Lisa among other works and he is said to have hung the iconic masterpiece in his bathroom. Of course his bathroom was a little nicer than the average outhouse. His sprawling residence housed numerous works of art and eventually he started to display these works making them accessible to the public.   This will be the final new episode for this season of Who ARTed. I will rebroadcast either the Georgia O'Keeffe, or Yayoi Kusama episode on Monday depending on who wins the Arts Madness tournament, but then I will be taking a break for a while. I may do a run of a few mini episodes if I have time over the summer, but otherwise look for new episodes in your podcast feed when Season 3 starts in the fall.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are entering the final round of this year's Arts Madness Tournament. For those listeners outside the United States, every spring, there is a giant basketball tournament called, March Madness, as 64 different college teams compete. The Arts Madness Tournament is a shameless attempt to ride the coattails of the immensely popular NCAA basketball tournament, but with 64 diverse artists. For the last five weeks, listeners have voted for their favorites narrowing the field from 64 down to just two finalists: Georgia O'Keeffe and Yayoi Kusama. One thing that I find particularly interesting in this matchup is that O'Keeffe and Kusama actually had a connection. While she was living in Japan thinking of becoming an artist, she was inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe and wrote to her. O'Keeffe responded offering her advice and encouragement. When Kusama was in New York, Georgia O'Keeffe actually came to her studio and offered her support even offering to provide Kusama a place to live. Kusama politely declined the invitation because while O'Keeffe was an established artist and could afford to stay in her beloved New Mexico desert home, Kusama was just starting out and needed to be in New York to be immersed in the art scene, make connections and establish her own career. This episode replays the background information from each artist's full episodes recorded earlier this season. You can vote for your favorite at www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2019, Maurizio Cattelan displayed a piece at Art Basel Miami, and it grabbed headlines around the world. The artwork titled Comedian consisted of simply a banana duct taped to a wall. Cattelan was offering 3 editions of this work and actually sold two for $120,000 each. If that weren‘t enough, another artist at the show took the banana off the wall and ate it. David Datuna, a performance artist, performed an intervention he dubbed Hungry Artist consuming the banana that caused such a stir. Cattelan appears to have had a good sense of humor about the incident. Nobody pressed charges for vandalism or anything along those lines because the banana was not the point. Comedian was a conceptual piece, so patrons were not really buying a banana tapes to a wall. They bought a certificate of authenticity for the idea of taping a banana to a wall, so basically they paid $120,000 for an artwork made of a banana bought from a local grocery store for $0.30 and in the end, they may or may not actually get the banana. As always you can find more at www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com and if you enjoy the podcast, please follow Who Arted on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgia O‘Keeffe is considered the mother of American modernism. Her influence actually reached beyond American borders. Yayoi Kusama was not only inspired by O‘Keeffe, but Georgia O‘Keeffe was generous enough to give her advice and even offer to allow her a place to stay and financial support early in Kusama‘s career. Georgia O‘Keeffe appears to have not only been a great artist, but also a great person. O‘Keeffe‘s greatest legacy is probably her unique perspective on nature. She painted around 200 pictures of flowers using a close cropped composition that made them appear as abstractions. While these paintings are often viewed in symbolic terms, O‘Keeffe always insisted her work was simply based on observation. For this episode we discussed her painting Blue Morning Glories from 1935. As always you can see the image and find more at www.whoartedpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this week's Fun Fact Friday mini episode, I am sharing an interesting little tidbit I found about Georgia O'Keeffe. While she is best known for her paintings of nature specifically, her most popular works are close cropped images of flowers or images inspired by the desert landscapes she encountered while living in New Mexico. While her work was all about nature, she painted those vast, open desert landscapes from the confines of a cramped Ford Model A car. She apparently developed a habit of transforming her car into a makeshift studio. She would remove the driver's seat, flip the passenger seat backwards so it would face the backseat. The back bench would serve as an easel as she sat in the rear facing passenger seat to paint. She did this in order to protect herself from the harsh sun, although I would imagine the interior of that car would also get quite hot baking out in the New Mexico desert. If you are interested in learning more about Georgia O'Keeffe, she will be the subject of the next full episode coming out on Monday. As always there is more fun art history to explore at www.whoartedpodcast.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices