The Modern Art Notes Podcast

This is a detail from Edouard Manet’s Repose (1871), which is now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in “Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity.” The exhibition ostensibly looks at how impressionist painters treated high Parisian fashion, but is really more interesting to think about as how artists began to pivot toward presenting daily life (of the mostly very wealthy) in their work.

This is the second major exhibition to feature Manet’s Repose int he last year. It was included in “Manet: Portraying Life,” the first exhibition devoted to Manet’s portraiture. The exhibition debuted last year at the Toledo Museum of Art (and is now at the Royal Academy in London). 

Episode No. 48 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast was all about Manet’s portraiture (and featured particular discussion of Repose and the woman in it: Berthe Morisot). Host Tyler Green’s guests on Episode No. 48 were exhibition co-curator Lawrence Nichols, the senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at Toledo, and Gary Tinterow, the former head of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. While at the Met, Tinterow was the curator of the 2002 exhibition “Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting.”

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See more images of Manets discussed on the program.

The Cleveland Museum of Art has is showing “Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011,” in its glass box gallery. The exhibition features four Wilson objects. The exhibition will remain on view through May 5. 

Fred Wilson was the guest on Episode No. 33 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast, an episode  taped live at the Toledo Museum of Art to celebrate the opening of “Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012.” (Toledo has long been one of the world’s glass-manufacturing powerhouses.) 

Among the pieces we discuss on this week’s show is Wilson’s Iago’s Mirror (2009) in Toledo’s collection. Both To Die Upon a Kiss (2011, above, detail), and Iago’s Mirror were informed by Wilson’s visits to Venice and his knowledge of Shakespeare’s “Othello. The final words Othello speaks make up the title of this piece. 

Wilson is best known for his works made not out of glass, pigment-and-canvas or bronze, but with museum collections. His work with his materials raises questions about historical narratives we’ve been taught, narratives that are often re-inforced by collections and displays of cultural objects. 

To listen: Download the episode directly to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The MAN Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher or RSS. See images of art discussed on the Wilson program.

The Modern Art Notes Podcast: Georges Braque

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Kemper Art Museum curator and Washington University professor Karen Butler. Her exhibition “Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945” is at the Kemper through April 21. Phillips Collection curator Renée Maurer co-organized the show. Its handsome catalogue was published by Prestel.

The exhibition offers the first detailed look at Braque’s still-life painting in the years leading up to and through World War II, a period during which questions of painting and daily life were inextricably wrapped up in politics and resistance. Somehow the Kemper exhibition is the first Braque show of any kind in the United States in 16 years.

This is a detail from a 1942 still-life at the Toledo Museum of Art. Butler and host Tyler Green discuss how the abundance in Braque’s pre-World War II paintings — witness the healthy fish and the bountiful grapes — gives way to less once the war starts. Compare this painting to this 1937 painting at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

How to listen: Download the show to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the program.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Kemper Art Museum curator and Washington University professor Karen Butler. Her exhibition “Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945” is at the Kemper through April 21. Phillips Collection curator Renée Maurer co-organized the show. Its handsome catalogue was published by Prestel.

The exhibition offers the first detailed look at Braque’s still-life painting in the years leading up to and through World War II, a period during which questions of painting and daily life were inextricably wrapped up in politics and resistance. Somehow the Kemper exhibition is the first Braque show of any kind in the United States in 16 years.

This is a 1937 Braque still-life (detail, full image here) in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (which has a fab new website). Butler and host Tyler Green discuss how some of the abundance in Braque’s pre-World War II paintings — witness the healthy fish and the bountiful grapes — gives way to less once the war starts. Compare the 1937 painting here to this 1942 painting at the Toledo Museum of Art.

How to listen: Download the show to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the program.

The second segment of this week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Indianapolis Museum of Art conservator Richard McCoy talking about the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art-North America’s Tony Smith Artist Research Project. 

McCoy and his colleagues have created project on which they’re trying to use Wikipedia to document all 83 of Smith’s outdoor sculptures, making pictures, available technical documentation and information about the works publicly available, and for free. Anyone may contribute an entry on one of Smith’s outdoor works, so check out the list of outdoor Smiths to see if there’s one near you! (Bonus: If you complete an entry, INCCA-NA will send you this kick-ass t-shirt as a thank-you.)

This is Smith’s Moses (1968/1998) at the Toledo Museum of Art. The TMA has photographed the sculpture for wiki-documentation, but the its version of Moses doesn’t have a Wikipedia page — yet. (Toledo readers/listeners…) The other editions of this sculpture are at Princeton University and at Seattle City Center.

Listen to McCoy discuss the project on this week’s MAN Podcast: Download the show to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast (it’s free!) via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS.

There are just two weeks left to see “Manet: Portraying Life,” a new exhibition of Edouard Manet’s portraits at the Toledo Museum of Art. It is the first exhibition devoted to Manet’s portraiture. Toledo organized the exhibition in association with the Royal Academy in London, where it will open on Jan. 26, 2013.

Episode No. 48 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast was devoted to Manet’s portraiture. The guests were exhibition co-curator Lawrence Nichols, the senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at Toledo and Gary Tinterow, the former head of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. While at the Met, Tinterow was the curator of the 2002 exhibition “Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting.”

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. See more images of Manets discussed on the program.

Image: Edouard Manet, Portrait of Zacharie Astruc (detail), 1866. Collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen.

Episode No. 48 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast spotlighted “Manet: Portraying Life,” a major exhibition of Edouard Manet’s portraits now at the Toledo Museum of Art. It is the first exhibition devoted to Manet’s portraiture. Toledo organized the exhibition in association with the Royal Academy in London, where it will travel next.

If you love art history, Paris, or the way modern art began to happen, this show is a real treat! My guests were exhibition co-curator Lawrence Nichols, the senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at Toledo, and Gary Tinterow, the former head of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. While at the Met, Tinterow was the curator of the 2002 exhibition “Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting.”

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. See more images of Manets discussed on the program.

Image: Edouard Manet, Portrait of Antonin Proust (detail), 1880. Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast spotlights “Manet: Portraying Life,” a new exhibition of Edouard Manet’s portraits at the Toledo Museum of Art. It is the first exhibition devoted to Manet’s portraiture. Toledo organized the exhibition in association with the Royal Academy in London, where it will travel next.

When first exhibited at the 1880 Salon, Chez Le Pere Lathuille - En Plein Air (detail, 1879) caused no little disquiet. Critics complained that the woman wasn’t formally enough attired to be out on an amorous occasion. That so many in the audience recognized Manet’s models — a young man from a prominent restaurant owner and an actress — added to the murmurs. This painting was exhibited in the same Salon as Toledo’s extraordinary portrait of Antonin Proust, a prominent journalist, politician and a friend of the artist’s.  

My guests on this week’s MAN Podcast are exhibition co-curator Lawrence Nichols, the senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at Toledo and Gary Tinterow, the former head of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. While at the Met, Tinterow was the curator of the 2002 exhibition “Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting.”

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. See more images of Manets discussed on the program.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast spotlights “Manet: Portraying Life,” a new exhibition of Edouard Manet’s portraits opening Sunday at the Toledo Museum of Art. It is the first exhibition devoted to Manet’s portraiture. Toledo organized the exhibition in association with the Royal Academy in London, where it will travel next.

If you have fond memories of the 2002-03 Metropolitan Museum of Art blockbuster “Manet/Velazquez” show, you’ll love this week’s program: The second guest is Gary Tinterow, the curator of that exhibition and now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Tinterow tells some great stories about Manet’s experiences of Velazquez and Spanish art (and of Spanish food), and how Spanish art impacted his portraiture, works such as Portrait of Theodore Duret (detail, 1868, collection of the Petit Palais, Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris) in the Toledo exhibition. 

My first guest is  exhibition co-curator Lawrence Nichols, the senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at Toledo.

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. See more images of Manets discussed on the program.