The Lonely Palette

WE'RE IN THE HOME STRETCH of our Patreon Listener Challenge! This is indeed the time to pull up your socks and start supporting the show, all to the dulcet tones of a re-release of our second and most lauded Patreon listener-supported episode from 2019 on the Ecce Homo restoration fiasco, wherein a well-intentioned, though, uh, untrained parishioner in a small Spanish town decided to take it upon herself restore a crumbling fresco and inadvertently birthed the meme of our young century. And if you're so moved, please consider making us happy little trees by becoming a Patreon patron at any level, and we'll do you one better with an episode on your favorite soothing soft-voiced paint-dabby PBS mainstay and mine, Bob Ross. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2019/1/25/episode-36-behold-the-monkey-the-ecce-homo-restoration Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, “Sylvestor”, “Mute Steps”, “Mr. Graves”, “Lobo Lobo”, “Lumber Down”, “Cloudy Cider” T

Our Patreon Listener Challenge is ongoing! And if you're on the fence about supporting the show, why not sit back with a re-release of our first-ever Patreon listener-supported episode from 2018 on C.M. Coolidge's "Dogs Playing Poker," where we dive into the trials and tribulations of kitsch, the battle between the Sams and Dianes of the world, and what it means to appreciate art at a frequency that we all can hear. And if you're so moved, please consider making us happy little trees by becoming a Patreon patron at any level, and we'll do you one better with an episode on your favorite soothing soft-voiced paint-dabby PBS mainstay and mine, Bob Ross. See the images: www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/201…g-poker-1903 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! www.patreon.com/lon

A number of years ago, my Twitter pinged. Then it pinged again. All of a sudden, a whole host of people were following the show, and when I giddily found the source, it was the soulful and stylish Avery Trufelman, longtime 99% Invisible producer, currently of Articles of Interest, and fashionista tastemaker, who had pronounced The Lonely Palette her favorite art history podcast. Bestill my heart! It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, a kinship between co-founders of a mutual admiration society where the stories of stuff - art, objects, design, things, everything they say you can’t put on the radio - reigned supreme. Avery and I popped into our respective closets to chat about writing, audio, art, fashion, the trappings of podcast success, storytelling in a heated political climate, trusting your voice, that infamous cerulean blue scene in The Devil Wears Prada, ranking the heroes of epic poetry, and much more. Episode webpage: https://bit.ly/3jtcOBl Music used: The Blue Dot Sessions, “Swapp

They say that those who can do and those who can’t teach. But “they” don’t seem to have ever met a proper teacher. In honor of the Norwegian town of Bodø’s recognition as a 2024 European Capital of Culture, we dive into Bodø’s most famous artist, Adelsteen Normann, the teacher you’ve never heard of, the picture-postcard modernist who introduced us to the scream that is Edvard Munch, and, eclipsed though he may have been, the painter who illuminated both the town he loved and the students he nurtured with the warmth of a sun that never sets. This episode was produced in partnership with Bodø2024: European Capital of Culture. See the images: https://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

Light and dark. Frozen action. Angels with dirty faces. Infamously both a hothead punk and one of the most extraordinarily potent and virtuosic painters in the canon, Caravaggio is nothing if not a man of contrasts. See the images: https://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! https://bit.ly/3An5jSd Episode sponsor: www.visualartspassage.com/palette

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

Hello, friends to art podcasts! I'm giving my feed over today to a preview of a new podcast from Pushkin Industries, Somethin’ Else, and Sony Music Entertainment: "Death of an Artist". The show examines a tragedy in the art world. For more than 35 years, accusations of murder shrouded one of the art world’s most storied couples: was the famous sculptor Carl Andre involved in the death of his up-and-coming artist wife Ana Mendieta? Host Helen Molesworth revisits Mendieta’s death, taking a closer look at how she might have fallen out of the window of Carl’s 34th floor New York apartment, and the following trial which has divided the art world since 1985. Hear more from "Death of an Artist" at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/artist?sid=palette.

There isn’t a single subject that Adam Gopnik’s prose can’t bring to life. As staff writer at the New Yorker since 1986, he has written about almost everything, including, just in the last year, Proust, gun control, the Beatles, and the Marquis de Lafayette. But it’s when he starts writing about art that things get particularly delectable: “the runny, the spilled…the lipstick-traces-left-on-the-kleenex” life and style of Helen Frankenthaler; “the paint, laid on with a palette knife, that deliciously resembles cake frosting” technique of Florine Stettheimer; “the monumental and mock-monumental that tango in the imagination” of Claes Oldenburg. And perhaps the reason why Gopnik, who has a graduate degree in art history from NYU’s Institute of Fine Art, is able to write about art with such lucidness and latitude is that he isn’t just knowledgeable about art; he adores it. The charge, the perfume, the misty spray of the orange peel that is evoked when you stand in the Arena Chapel - everything that, if you’

Art history textbooks, so excellent for flattening curled-up rug corners and holding open doors, are expected to tell us the entire story of our civilization, one painting at a time. It's more than any book, even one that weighs a spine-crunching twenty-five pounds, should be expected to do. And it opens our eyes to the way that history is narrated, and taught, and even, it follows, to how paintings are displayed, and museums are curated. So much is touched on; so much is left out. It's too much, and far too little, all at once. Dr. Charlotte Mullins has decided to lean into the brevity, and in doing so, manages to tell us so much more. In her new book, "A Little History of Art," she tells the story of 100,000 years of art history, in, in her words, language akin to a haiku, every word intentionally chosen, every artwork telling its own story. She turns us into time-travelers in a scant 300 pages. We talked about reading art history, teaching art history, writing art history, and much more. Charlot

“I am for the art of underwear and the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete. I am for an art that is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.” Today, the art world - and, as he would attest, the world world too - lost a giant, and we're re-releasing our episode from September 2020 in his honor. RIP, Claes Oldenburg, and thank you for plucking art from its spotless frame and returning it to our messy, magnificent plane. Hope you're enjoying that great big floor pie in the sky. 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" 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: https://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

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: https://bit.ly/3MzWc47 Support the show: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

We stan a queen. This episode was produced in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See the images: https://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

The Lonely Palette is on maternity leave until early March, which means that we've been turning to the archives to feature episodes specific to the many shades of motherhood. This episode, from March 2020, tackles the noble melons, jugs, and knockers that nourish the gazes and stomachs of the world. So why are we so disgusted when a woman – and specifically performance artist Patty Chang - saves a little bit for herself? See the images: bit.ly/33DsB4P Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, “Flatlands 3rd,” “Louver,” “Sino de Cobre,” “Dorica Theme,” “The Dustbin,” “We Shall Know Speed” Support the show: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is on maternity leave until early March, which means that for the next few weeks, we'll be turning to the archives to feature episodes specific to the many shades of motherhood. This episode, from May 2018, looks at the Virgin Mary and her baby Jesus, and explores how their gentle, intimate relationship - as she gathers her diaphanous skirts to sit with her little nugget on the probably Cheerio-strewn floor of heaven - helps us understand the Renaissance. See the images: https://bit.ly/3rtNJIh 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: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

The Lonely Palette is on maternity leave until early March, which means that for the next few weeks, we'll be turning to the archives to feature episodes specific to the many shades of motherhood. This episode, from February 2021, speaks not just to the hazy, cozy, time-out-of-joint space that Tamar is currently in, but also to the state of the pandemic, which, unfortunately, doesn't feel much sunnier today than it did a year ago. But what good is a mom if not to help us see our way out of the fog? 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” Joe Dassin's “Les Champs-Elysees" via music box, ft. Calvin giggles Support the show: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

When tragedy strikes an individual, a nation, or an entire people, artists and architects are tasked with designing a public display that memorializes the event and its victims. But how do you do that? In this episode, we explore the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in DC, the 9/11 Memorial, and others, to look at how respecting and remembering loss collides with the demands of history and politics. Why do abstract, rather than representational, memorials resonate more profoundly in recent years? And no matter how well done they are, will they inevitably lose their impact after a single generation? This episode of The Lonely Palette was produced in collaboration with Slate’s Hi-Phi Nation. 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”

Quilts, and textiles in general, have a funny way of being overlooked by the fine art world. They’re dismissed as craft, as outsider, as “women’s work,” or as potentially uninteresting museum exhibits. But some quilts, and some quilters, tell their stories, explain our histories, and simply refuse to be denied. 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: https://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: https://bit.ly/3GAli0M Support the show: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

A man. A woman. A window. A pitchfork. It’s the most seemingly straightforward double portrait to come out of rural America, and yet it’s become synonymous with ambiguity and mystery, parody and polarization. Amazing how hungry we are to turn a portrait of an artist’s hometown spirit into a portrait of a larger American cultural moment, no matter what it meant to them then, or what it means to us now. See the images: https://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

A year ago today, we released our most ambitious episode yet: an exploration of postwar German artist Anselm Kiefer's layered, dense, enormous canvases that themselves respond to the enormity of Holocaust survivor Paul Celan's layered, dense poem, "Todesfugue." In honor of this episode taking the gold in podcasting at the American Alliance of Museums' MuseWeb awards, we're re-releasing the episode, and with it the layers of metaphor and materials, texture and text, golden straw and blackened ash, that comprise the unimaginable. 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.pa