Is It Art Tho?

We’re back dear listeners and this time we’ve decided to go all Modernist on you with an episode dedicated to the Dada art movement!

Join us on this weird and wonderful Dadaist trip through inter-war Europe and New York as we explore avant-garde art, sound poetry, performance, photomontage, and the mystery of the world’s most famous urinal.

Artworks:

Karawane – Hugo Ball

https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/news/3001/Salonen-premiere-of-Karawane-to-launch-Creative-Chair-position-at-Tonhalle-Zurich/

Voices of dada

https://open.spotify.com/album/3LuikTBq28HdPlK2DVuUCb?si=JRffH5zFTGKWjHR2hydW8w

Dada manifesto – Hugo Ball

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dada_Manifesto_(1916,_Hugo_Ball)

First International Dada Fair, Berlin 1920

http://www.cocosse-journal.org/2014/06/the-first-international-dada-fair.html

Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany – Hannah Hoch

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-cut-with-the-dada-kitchen-knife-through-the-last-weimar-beer-belly-cultural-epoch-in-germany

Staatshäupter - Hannah Hoch

http://cdn.artobserved.com/2014/03/Hannah-H%C3%B6ch_Whitechapel-Gallery_Staatsh%C3%A4upter-Heads-of-State-1930.jpg

Indian Dancer – Hannah Hoch

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/37360

Untitled (From an Ethnographic Museum), 1929 – Hannah Hoch

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/gallery/8183/dada-africa-dialogue-with-the-other/2

Fountain – Marcel Duchamp (Maybe)

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-duchamps-urinal-changed-art-forever

Bicycle Wheel – Marcel Duchamp

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81631

Further reading:

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I

https://www.dw.com/en/africa-and-world-war-i/a-17573462#:~:text=A%20million%20people%20died%20in%20East%20Africa%20alone%20during%20World%20War%20I.&text=Some%2010%2C000%20South%20African%20soldiers,Africa%20which%20honors%20their%20sacrifice.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada#:~:text=Dada%20was%20an%20art%20movement,satirical%20and%20nonsensical%20in%20nature

https://www.minniemuse.com/articles/musings/the-cabaret-volatire

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/dada/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jan/09/hannah-hoch-art-punk-whitechapel

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8931/hannah-hoch-reimagines-indigenous-african-artefacts

Further listening:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AUeo6HFPySTJWCjz2cvDX?si=k3KgycUNSCSegmPQl8otKg

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LFk1IeayMcApEkVhuQfEG?si=sIrCG2QXRea_RoeiyVptaQ

Further viewing:

Documentary - Dada: The original art rebels (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed1NfFMkYmE

Documentary - Dada and Surrealism: Europe After the Rain (1978) -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBaS8fgwNs

Marie Osmond reciting Karawane for Ripley's Believe It Or Not - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E87lHNl6HnE

Happy Festive Season listeners! We've just squeaked in a Christmas-themed episode for you to enjoy before the New Year. This time, we wanted answers to a question that has bothered the IIAT household for some time: what's the deal with Old Man Baby Jesus in early art? 

We discover why people couldn't get enough of balding / jacked / eye bags / combover portrayals of the little baby Jesus, via Netflix Christmas specials, some Medieval alchemy, and some strange ideas about animals. 

Artworks:

Jacopo Bellini - Madonna and Child with Angels (1440s)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacopo_Bellini_-_The_Madonna_and_Child_with_angels,_6282010.jpg 
https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Jacopo-Bellini/712673/Madonna-and-Child,-15th-century,-1926.html

Barnaba de Modena - Madonna Breastfeeding Child (active 1361-1383)
https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/madonna-breastfeeding-child-by-barnaba-da-modena-active-1361-1383-pisa-museo-nazionale-di-san-matteo-art-museum/DAE-11175251

Unattributed - Madonna and Child, Madonna delle Vergini or Icon from Bitonto (1304)
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/italy-puglia-bari-pinacoteca-provinciale-corrado-giaquinto-news-photo/187388764

Nicola di Maestro Antonio - Mother and Child Enthroned (c 1490)
https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2225/madonna-and-child-enthroned-nicola-di-maestro-antonio

Pacino di Bonaguida - Details from Tree of Life (1310)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacino-di-bonaguida-florence-1310-1315.jpg
Detail: https://www.akg-images.com/archive/The-tree-of-life-2UMEBMYDJL5QZ.html 

Jean Mancel - Illustration from Vie de Nostre Seigneur Jésus Christ (15th C)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/525091637798032930/

Unattributed - The Annunciation, The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (Late 12th C)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_of_the_Annunciation,_St._Catherine%27s_Monastery

Further reading:

https://thedecodinghistory.wordpress.com/2020/11/06/story-behind-why-babies-in-medieval-art-look-like-creepy-adults/

https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/history-of-art-ugliest-paintings-of-jesus/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66691/why-do-babies-medieval-paintings-look-so-old-and-scary

https://www.thecollector.com/baby-jesus-in-medieval-religious-iconography/

https://wtfarthistory.com/post/7886097565/homunculus-n-a-little-human

https://artandtheology.org/tag/homunculus/

It is the season of the WITCH, baby!!! This time we have a Halloween special for you. From Lilith the OG, via Circe, Hekate and Europe’s early modern Witch Craze, we are giving you a whistle-stop tour of all things witchy and woo woo. Along the way we discuss crow armies, personal taxidermists, and whether Albrecht Dürer was a fan of the Curly Girl Method. 

The list of artworks we discuss in order are:

The Burney Relief, Old Babylonian 19th-18thC BC: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_2003-0718-1

Story of Circe on an Ancient Greek pot, c. 440 BC: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253627

John Collier, Lilith, 1889: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lilith-65854

Albrecht Dürer

The Witch, c. 1500: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/391139

Four Witches, 1497: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_E-2-119

Self Portrait, 1500: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_(D%C3%BCrer,_Munich)  

Hans Baldung Grien

The Witches, 1510: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/416796

Bewitched Groom, 1544/45: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/bewitched-groom

Woodcuts 

A Rehearsall both Straung and True, of Hainous and Horrible Actes Committed by Elizabeth Stile,1579: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/witchcraft-pamphlet-a-rehearsal-both-strange-and-true-1579

Title page of Matthew Hopkins’ “A Discovery of Witches”, 1647: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large107868.html

The History of Witches and Wizards in England, 1720: https://wellcomecollection.org/images?query=abkab8tq

Daniel Gardner, The Three Witches from Macbeth, 1775: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw144816/The-Three-Witches-from-Macbeth-Elizabeth-Lamb-Viscountess-Melbourne-Georgiana-Duchess-of-Devonshire-Anne-Seymour-Damer

Henry Fuseli

Macbeth, Banquo and the Witches, 1793-4: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/macbeth-banquo-and-the-witches-219771

The Weird Sisters, c. 1783: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/macbeth-act-i-scene-3-the-weird-sisters-54899

Francisco Goya

Witches’ Flight, c. 1798: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/witches-flight/5e44d19d-7cda-472b-b6d8-8868c599d252 

Witches’ Sabbath, 1797-8: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/el-aquelarre/kAFyfuppyHHyBw?hl=en-GB 

Truth, Time and History, 1812: https://fundaciongoyaenaragon.es/eng/obra/la-verdad-el-tiempo-y-la-historia/165 

Witches’ Sabbath, or The Great He-Goat, 1820-3: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/witches-sabbath-or-the-great-he-goat/09559184-cfeb-48fe-8acc-89b070b64d92

JW Waterhouse, The Magic Circle, 1886: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/waterhouse-the-magic-circle-n01572 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lilith, 1866-8: https://emuseum.delart.org/objects/6457/lady-lilith?ctx=7daa5724c2dab253a5696066e15664624303a27d&idx=5 

You can follow us on Instagram (@isit_arttho), Facebook (@isitarttho) or Twitter (@isitarttho1) to see the artworks we discuss. 

We also did a lot of research for this episode which we weren’t able to fit in, so if you want to get your witch on, check out these articles and other podcast episodes below: 

Lilith

https://www.learnreligions.com/legend-of-lilith-origins-2076660 

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/lilith/ 

Medieval witches

https://theconversation.com/the-evolution-of-the-medieval-witch-and-why-shes-usually-a-woman-104861 

Gone Medieval, Royal Witches:  https://podfollow.com/gone-medieval/episode/bacf891c71399cabaaec98a5a4f0552e7a85aef9/view 

https://www.grunge.com/417990/royalty-who-dabbled-in-witchcraft/ 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/women-making-beer 

The Witch Craze

You’re Dead To Me (BBC), The Witch Craze: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07nx05j 

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/woodcuts-and-witches#1-1

https://historycollection.com/12-shocking-beliefs-from-the-malleus-maleficarum-the-witchfinders-guidebook/12/

https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/abject-eroticism-in-northern-renaissance-art-the-witches-and-femmes-fatales-of-hans-baldung-grien/foreword [There’s a free sample you can read]

Goya: https://stevengambardella.medium.com/the-horror-is-real-51ba933efb5b 

JW Waterhouse and Circe: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/waterhouse-circe/ 

General witchiness:

Art History Babes, Witches Bitches: https://podfollow.com/1123488172/episode/9d1cc1fc0f192c2ad5721e7563390c8b1b0e61f5/view 

Art Matters, The Art History of Witches: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-the-art-history-of-witches

Sorry listeners, we’ve left a long gap since our last two episodes… but we’re making up for it with a truly bonkers painting. Oh, you’re in for a treat this time, because we are talking about Hieronymus Bosch’s wackiest of paintings, The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was Augustina’s turn to research this one and she ended up tearing her hair out trying to figure out what was going on. Turns out, most art historians feel the same way. The only thing we definitely know about Bosch is that his art is cray cray. 

This episode we’re also treating you to not one, but two Bosch-themed musical interludes. Thank you to composer Jim Spalink for allowing us to play his arrangement of The Butt Music From Hell and to brilliant comedian Harriet Braine (@harrietbraine) for her song based on the painting.

We’ll share the painting in all the usual places but for a really in-depth look, try this interactive tour that lets you zoom right in:

https://archief.ntr.nl/tuinderlusten/en.html

It’s a really dense and interesting piece of work so if you want some further reading / watching, we recommend:

Great Art Explained: The Garden of Earthly Delights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBG621XEegk

Renaissance Revolution - The Garden of Earthly Delights (BBC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx5M2um7zjM

15 Facts You Need to Know About the Delightfully Weird ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ https://mymodernmet.com/garden-of-earthly-delights-bosch/

… And some freaky looking owls https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/10/bad-news-birds.html

This episode we cover the life, art and unbelievable drama of the one and only Frida Kahlo. Get ready for sex, gore, love, betrayal, jail, revolutionary communism and for some reason... a monkey. We also meet Ellie's cat Frida, the third podcast member and - probably - Kahlo's feline horcrux. 

To view all the paintings in this episode, visit our Instagram (@isit_arttho) or our Facebook page (@isitarttho). Please subscribe and leave us a review if you like what you hear :)