Raw Material

Art History For All guides you through Roberto Matta’s surreal mental landscape, Invasion of the Night (1941), and explores its connections to physics and psychology. This episode was produced by Art History for All. More episodes at arthistoryforall.com.

This episode focuses on Betye Saar (b. 1926). In a 1975 interview, she discusses the diverse sources for her art and how she prevailed in the face of racism and gender discrimination. This episode is produced by the J. Paul Getty Museum Museum. More episodes at getty.edu/recordingartists/.

“A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is the experience.” — Mark Rothko This episode is produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes at http://www.thelonelypalette.com/.

Connor is a portrait of President William Howard Taft. He's hanging on a wall, but is anybody looking at him? This episode is produced by Everything Is Alive. More episodes at https://www.everythingisalive.com/

This episode, "The Many Deaths of a Painting" was produced by 99% Invisible. More episodes at 99percentinvisible.org.

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material's "summer mixtape," from SFMOMA. Season update: Raw Material is temporarily suspending this season to create space for more urgent stories and conversations. Black lives matter.

Welcome to Raw Material from SFMOMA! Start here for a quick introduction to our seasonal arts + culture podcast, by SFMOMA Content Producer and Raw Material creator Erin Fleming.

Sayre Quevedo, Raw Material’s podcaster-in-residence for Season 6, is at the end of his journey. It all started with a curiosity about the surprising ways humans are connected, and a wild plot to make his way to various artists through “degrees of separation.” When we first meet Sayre, he’s stealing love letters back from an ungracious ex. In this final episode, where does this experiment leave him?

After a series of false starts, rabbit holes, and mind maps, the time has come for Sayre to (possibly) meet internationally acclaimed artist Nikhil Chopra, the sixth degree of separation. Nikhil is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, splayed upon the floor. Sayre is intimidated, alone, and buried behind a crowd of Nikhil’s friends and fans. Will the two finally connect, or will fate have it otherwise?

Nooshin Rostami is a United States–based Iranian artist living in exile. While her father was dying in Iran, Nooshin was 6000 miles away from home. How will she process her grief without physical contact—without seeing her sisters, her mother, and the body of her father? What will it take to cross the insurmountable distance between her and her closest connections? Her answer: light.

The sounds of rain, a family kitchen, a song, a late-night conversation—do the moments they encapsulate make us who we are? In this episode, Sayre Quevedo travels through artist Yetunde Olagbaju’s memory via a series of intimate recordings that constitute what they call a “living archive.”

Jazmin Jones is pathologically inept at returning phone calls. In an attempt to clear her conscience (and voice-mail box), the artist decides to make a series of anxiety-inducing phone calls she’s put off for far too long. Listen in as Jazmin painfully catches up with friends, family, and accusatory ex-lovers.

Sayre Quevedo begins Raw Material season six by breaking into his ex-boyfriend’s apartment. His goal is to retrieve twenty-two love letters he wrote to a man who doesn’t deserve them. Join Sayre as he searches for signs, symbols, closure, and perhaps, real connection.

Season 6 Trailer: Six Degrees by SFMOMA

Season 5 of Raw Material takes inspiration from a 41 x 37-foot scale model of the city that was recently unearthed, refurbished, and distributed in pieces to neighborhood libraries. Listen in as residents tell stories of life in this vibrant, diverse, and ever-changing frontier city. Produced by award-winning radio documentarians the Kitchen Sisters, this season examines themes of urban development and identity in a city poised on the edge of the continent and built on landfill, steep hills, and the dreams of immigrants and pioneers. From memories of the luminous Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island to recollections of the freaky fun house at Playland, from North Beach to the Mission, Stories from the Model City brings to life the fascinating and troubled evolution of San Francisco.

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material, from SFMOMA.

A short, holiday bonus episode of Season 4 of Raw Material: Luvvers.

Facing persecution in her native Uganda and unwilling to live an inauthentic life, fierce queer artist Leilah Babirye made a choice. She fled her home to discover a world of sexual and artistic exuberance in a new creative community on Fire Island, New York. Learn more about her extraordinary life and her bold body of work in this episode of Luvvers. Photo: Leilah Babirye

The connection between the art world and the queer scene has not always been as openly discussed as it is today. Delve into the complex relationships between art, activism, and queer identity, and discover the power of making noise through making art. Photo: Douglas Crimp by T.L. Litt, 1990. Interview with Douglas Crimp is courtesy of SFMOMA's Open Space, from a conversation with Claudia La Rocco at the Lab in San Francisco.

Through looking at a variety of relationships, Chelsea investigates the many ways desire can be expressed. Hear the famed love letters Frida Kahlo sent to Diego Rivera, as well as to the lesser-known, though no less poetic answering machine messages left by Chelsea’s husband.