Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Georges Seurat | A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (encore)

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1894, George Seurat began going out to an idyllic little island away from the urban center of Paris. It was a place where people of various classes...

Yves Klein | Leap Into the Void

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are looking at Yves Klein and his famous photograph, Leap Into the Void, from 1960. Klein had a short but highly influential career as he...

Katsushika Hokusai | The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa (encore)

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katsushika Hokusai is best known for The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa, part of his series of 36 Views of Mount Fuji. His family was in the mirror busine...

Roberto Matta | The Earth is a Man

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roberto Matta was a Chilean born artist whose life and work transcended boundaries. He was always looking to explore new ideas, push his work further ...

Shiva Nataraja | Shiva the Lord of the Dance

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this depiction of Shiva we see the natural rhythms to everything in the cosmos. Birth and death, creation and destruction are symply phases all thi...

The Mona Lisa Vanishes

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Gherardini was not born to fame and fortune. In fact, her family had fallen on hard times as wars laid waste to their land. She was an unlikely s...

The Lascaux Cave Art

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On September 12, 1940, a dog fell down a fox hole and four boys went in after it. They descended into a cavern with a makeshift lamp and hopes of find...

Hahn v Duveen | The Case of the American Leonardo

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An artist’s skillful application of paint will make an artwork good, but a good story makes that artwork great. In 2010, a painting went on auction ...

The Peace Symbol

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November of 1957, a small committee was formed. February 17, 1958, they held the first public meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. That...

Diego Velazquez | Las Meninas

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Diego Velazques was one of the most significant painters of Spain's Golden Age in the 17th century. He was a master of both portraiture and genre pain...

Rene Magritte | The Son of Man

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rene Magritte's painting, Son of Man, is among the most famous images of the Surrealist Movement. It is one of the few artworks that transcends the mu...

Steven Seidenberg | The Architecture of Silence

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Seidenberg is an incredible photographer and in this episode, I spoke with Steven Seidenberg and the writer, Carolyn White about a little-known...

Alma Thomas (encore)

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alma Thomas was an amazing African American painter known for her abstract paintings with bold brush strokes that take on a mosaic quality. Check ...

Alfonse Mucha | Gismonda (encore)

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of Alfonse Mucha's birthday, I thought I would post an encore of my mini episode about the poster that catapulted him to fame. In December 18...

The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead | The Judgment of Hunefer

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This mini episode is about The Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts from ancient Egypt. To better understand the collection as well as the...

Your Brain on Art (encore)

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I was asked to create an episode about how art affects the brain. I found there is quite a bit of research conducted by neuroscientists around the wor...

Olowe of Ise | Veranda Post (encore)

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The bulk of Olowe’s carvings seem to have been both decorative and functional artworks for the Yoruba kings and prominent families. One of his celeb...

Donatello | David

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Donatello’s statue of David, just like the story, seems straightforward and simple at first glance, but with great art, there is always more than me...

Cirque du Soleil

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cirque du Soleil combines acrobatics, theater, music, and dance to create a magical experience that pushes the boundaries of our imagination and inspi...

Machu Picchu

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Machu Picchu would translate to “old mountain” but it isn’t that old. While stone ruins are often associated with ancient civilizations thousand...

Jack Kirby (encore)

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Kirby created some of the biggest names in the golden age of comics including: Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Incredible...

Akira Yoshizawa and Origami

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Origami is the Japanese art of folded paper sculpture. It is a tradition that is basically as old as paper. In the 6th century CE, Buddhist monks brou...

Romare Bearden (encore)

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Romare Bearden grew up during the Harlem Renaissance. He enlisted in the army during World War 2 and in addition to painting, he made collages, he wro...

Hilma Af Klint | What a Human Being Is (encore)

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hilma Af Klint was making abstract paintings before Kandinsky and Mondrian. She was exploring automatic writing and drawing guided by the subconscious...

Life Imitates Art - The Stockholm Art Heist

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It was early evening just a few minutes from closing time at the National Museum when suddenly the normally peaceful museum took on the aesthetic of a...

Yayoi Kusama - Narcissus Garden

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yayoi Kusama is one of the most popular contemporary artists with her infinity rooms drawing massive crowds wherever they are installed. In the infini...

The Ultimate Lego House

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's fun fact friday, you can learn about everyone's first and favorite modular building material Lego, and how in 2009 on man (with the he...

Gustave Caillebotte | Paris Street Rainy Day

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Impressionists are probably best known for their loose brush work, that painterly style that allows reminds us paint is not only a noun, but a ver...

Forgers Forging Forgeries (encore)

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in southern China had over 140 works stolen from their collection, but nobody noticed for years. This is because th...

Satoshi Tajiri | Pokemon (encore)

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Satoshi Tajiri and Pokemon is one of the biggest games in modern history. For over 25 years, hundre...

Fallen Astronaut, 1971

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fun fact: almost as soon as people started walking on the moon, they started to put art on the moon. In 1969, Nasa landed the first astronauts on the ...

Disney's Folly

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walt Disney started making silly fun cartoon shorts, but he had a vision to elevate animation to the status of a feature film capturing the full scope...

Salvador Dali | The Persistence of Memory (encore)

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an encore presentation of my episode sharing some fun facts about Salvador Dali and a little bit about his most famous painting, The Persisten...

Alexander McQueen | Jellyfish Ensemble (encore)

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an encore presentation of my first foray into the fashion world as Goldie Robinson helped me understand the brilliance of Alexander McQueen's ...

Matt Groening | Homer Simpson (encore)

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Matt Groening and Homer Simpson. With Mother's Day coming up, I thought it would be a great time to...

Johannes Vermeer | The Concert (encore)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are only 36 Vermeer paintings in the world today and one was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1991. The case remains unsolved ...

Leonardo da Vinci | The Last Supper (encore)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As I know many high school students around the US are prepping for the AP Art History test, I thought it would be nice to put out an episode on one of...

Luisa Ignacia Roldán | Saint Ginés de la Jara

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

My guest this week was Paula Liz, founder of Anti-Racist Art Teachers. I invited Paula to come to talk to me about one of her favorite artists, and sh...

The Taj Mahal (encore)

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful man-made structures in the world. It is a UNESCO world heritage site considered to be one of the modern won...

Introducing: Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

My son has been watching me record podcasts for years and he has worked hard to produce his own. Rainbow Puppy Science Lab is a kids and family podcas...

Edmonia Lewis | The Death of Cleopatra (encore)

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a#funfactfriday mini-episode about Edmonia Lewis and her sculpture The Death of Cleopatra. After it was exhibited in Philadelphia for the Cent...

Berthe Morisot | The Cradle

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Berthe Morisot was among the most successful French Impressionist painters during her lifetime. Today she is less well known than her peers like Clau...

DayGlo Colors

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an encore presentation of my episode about how DayGlo colors work and how they were developed by a pair of brothers in the 1930s. Fill out th...

Rachel Ruysch | Fruit and Insects

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Ruysch was an incredibly skilled dutch painter in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She was renowned for her still lives. The objects in ...

Arts Madness Winner

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a very quick announcement of who came out on top in this year's Arts Madness Tournament. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

The Pyramids at Giza (encore)

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The great pyramids constructed by ancient Egyptians at Giza are the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still remaining. These massive ston...

Arts Madness Finals | Leonardo da Vinci & Vincent van Gogh

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week is the final round of our annual Arts Madness Tournament. Over the last few weeks, thousands of you have taken time to vote as we narrowed t...

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec | At The Moulin Rouge

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec | At The Moulin Rouge Fill out the Airwave Media Network survey to give me feedback and get a chance to win a $500 gift card...

Arts Madness | Final Four

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week I am posting a clip show giving a brief overview of the final four artists/artworks in this year's Arts Madness Tournament. Fill out the Air...

Stonehenge

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stonehenge has captured the imagination of people for centuries. It is hard to categorize the massive stone work. Is it a feat of engineering, sculptu...

Marina Abramovic | The Artist is Present

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marina Abromovic is a contemporary performance artist. In this episode, we talked about her performance piece, The Artist is Present, in which she sat...

Arts Madness Round 4

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Remember to vote for your favorite artist this week at www.whoartedpodcast.com/vote Fill out the Airwave Media Network survey to give me feedback and ...

The Moai of Rapa Nui

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week's Friday mini episode is about the Moai statues of Rapa Nui, commonly referred to as Easter Island. The Moai are one of 250 artworks on the ...

Introducing ArtCurious

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ArtCurious is one of my absolute favorite art podcasts. Jennifer Dasal does a deep dive into the research for all her subjects but presents the inform...

Arts Madness Round 3

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Voting in Round 3 of Arts Madness will be open until Saturday. Please go to www.WhoARTedPodcast.com/Vote to vote for your favorites. Fill out the Air...

Herb Williams | The Ultimate Crayons Artist

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's #funfactfriday mini episode I wanted to share a bit about Herb Williams. Williams is based out of Nashville, TN and he is working with...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Luncheon of the Boating Party

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Renoir is remembered as one of the greatest painters of the Impressionist movement. His paintings are soft and delicate, but his life and his w...

Arts Madness Round 2

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A quick summary of some of the interesting results from the voting in Round 1 and some of the matches I'm interested in for Round 2 of this year's Art...

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1778, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun met Marie Antoinette at the Royal palace in Versailles. The queen had heard of Le Brun’s talent and asked to paint...

George Lucas | Star Wars

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

George Lucas is responsible for some of the most popular films of all time. Early in his career, he began working on a script for a science fiction st...

Arts Madness Round 1

26 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every year in the US, 64 college basketball teams compete in a single elimination tournament known as March Madness. For years, I have created a simil...

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was associated with the Moulin Rouge since it first opened in 1891. He was captivated by the unique spirit of the club where...

Alexander Calder | Streetcar (encore)

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode we learn a bit about Alexander Calder, the mechanical engineer who became a pioneer of kinetic sculpture. The specific work we...

Phyllida Barlow - Untitled: upturnedhouse2, 2012 (encore)

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is about Phyllida Barlow. I spoke with Greg Daniels, an art teacher out of the UK who runs www.theartteacher.net It was a pleasure talkin...

Andy Warhol

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this portrait, Andy Warhol presented Marilyn Monroe in the format typically associated with religious artworks. This work was created just a few we...

Henri Matisse

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Henri Matisse was born in Northern France on December 31, 1869. His father was a successful grain merchant. In 1887, Henri was well on his way to a su...

Grant Wood

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Grant Wood was one of the most prominent painters of the Regionalist movement. He became a star of the art world pretty much overnight when his painti...

Shigeru Miyamoto

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shigeru Miyamoto has developed some of the most popular games of all time including Mario which is the most successful game franchise ever. Mario has ...

Rene Magritte

19 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rene Magritte's painting, Son of Man, is among the most famous images of the Surrealist Movement. It is one of the few artworks that transcends the mu...

Martha Graham (encore)

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Martha Graham was a pioneer of modern dance. She was 17 years old when she saw her first dance performance by Ruth St. Denis. A few years later she be...

Robert Rauschenberg

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Rauschenberg came on the scene in the 1940s and made a name for himself with the idea of the combine. He not only blurred the lines, he elimina...

Norman Rockwell

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Norman Rockwell was an incredible artist. He was not always respected as an illustrator, but his nostalgic images of small town America were incredibl...

Alma Thomas

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alma Thomas was an amazing African American painter known for her abstract paintings with bold brush strokes that take on a mosaic quality. Network Su...

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Felix Gonzalez-Torres was a conceptual artist who became well known in the 1980s and 90s for his works that broke down the barrier between artist and ...

The Apollo 11 Stones

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Apollo 11 Stones were not from the moon and really had nothing to do with the NASA mission, but they happened to be discovered as news of the moon...

Arthur Boyd

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur Boyd drew a lot of inspiration from religion, mythology and his own personal experiences. In the painting of Nebuchadnezzar on Fire Falling Ove...

Jack Kirby

11 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Kirby created some of the biggest names in the golden age of comics including: Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Incredible...

Robert Smithson | Spiral Jetty

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Smithson decided to make monumental sculptures using perhaps the world’s oldest material, the earth itself, but he used modern tools to shape...

Katsushika Hokusai

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katsushika Hokusai is best known for The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa, part of his series of 36 Views of Mount Fuji. His family was in the mirror busine...

Wassily Kandinsky

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wassily Kandinsky was an artist, teacher and art theorist in the early 20th century. His work was very influential in the development of modern, abstr...

Jackson Pollock

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In August of 1973, the Australian government bought a Jackson Pollock painting for $2 million. It was the highest price paid for work of an American a...

Hilma af Klint

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hilma af Klint was a painter making abstract art years before men like Kandinsky and she was exploring automatic drawing long before the surrealists. ...

Diego Rivera

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today Diego Rivera is less of a household name than his wife Frida Kahlo, but in the early 20th century, he was the more established artist. Rivera wa...

Olowe of Ise

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The bulk of Olowe’s carvings seem to have been both decorative and functional artworks for the Yoruba kings and prominent families. One of his celeb...

Christo and Jeanne Claude

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Christo and Jeanne Claude are best known for their monumental works using fabric to transform public spaces. These massive works outside of the museum...

Frank Lloyd Wright

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most famous and influential architects. He famously said, "No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. I...

Ai Weiwei

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ai Weiwei is possibly the most interesting man in the world. He is not only a famous contemporary artist. He was a top rated blackjack player, a polit...

Edvard Munch

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian artist best known for The Scream. He created multiple versions of the piece using paint, pastels, and lithography. The Sc...

KAWS

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Related Episodes: KAWS (full episode) The Art World is Bananas Take the Money and Run Arts Madness Tournament links: Check out the Brackets Tel...

Takashi Murakami

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode covers a little bit about Takashi Murakami, the contemporary Japanese artist. Arts Madness Tournament links: Check out the Brackets Te...

Romare Bearden

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Romare Bearden grew up during the Harlem Renaissance. He enlisted in the army during World War 2 and in addition to painting, he made collages, he wro...

Matt Groening

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons, one of the most successful cartoons of all time. Related episodes: Homer Simpson (full episode) Arts ...

Georgia O'Keeffe

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the greatest American painters of the 20th century.  Arts Madness Tournament links: Check out the Brackets Tell me whi...

Leonardo da Vinci | The Mona Lisa

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Mona Lisa, also called La Gioconda has captured society’s collective imagination. Her hold on the audience is ...

Johannes Vermeer

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Johannes Vermeer is best known today for painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Part of the allure of this painting is the pose, she seems a little...

Rembrandt

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Recently a team completed a 717 gigapixel image of Rembrandt's painting, The Night Watch. Learn a little bit more about this famous piece that has bee...

Chuck Close

22 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chuck Close said when a problem seems overwhelming, you should break it down into smaller pieces. To tackle the photorealistic faces, Chuck Close woul...

Faith Ringgold

21 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Faith Ringgold is a contemporary American artist. She studied art education and started as a painter, but she is best known for her story quilts. She ...

Burton Morris

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Burton Morris is a contemporary Pop Art painter whose work was featured in the sitcom Friends. His work got a starring role after a camera operator on...

Vincent van Gogh | The Starry Night

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Vincent van Gogh saw little commercial success during his lifetime, but he loved art and he worked to forge relationships with other artists he could ...