The Object The Object podcast from the Minneapolis Institute of Art

In the 1930s, Grant Wood is one of the most famous people in America, the artist behind "American Gothic"—the painting of the man, the woman, and the pitchfork, standing outside their house. An artwork so celebrated and so curious it’s called the “modern Mona Lisa.” But as times change and jealousy spreads, Wood suddenly finds himself fighting for his life and livelihood, protecting a secret he hid almost everywhere but in his achingly quirky, queer art.

You can see Wood’s curious, nostalgic style in "The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2805/the-birthplace-of-herbert-hoover-grant-wood

Some see a self-portrait in "Sentimental Yearner," a drawing made for Sinclair Lewis’s "Main Street": https://collections.artsmia.org/art/22510/sentimental-yearner-grant-wood

On the 90th anniversary of the groundbreaking Tatra automobile, we bring you this encore episode from The Object's first season. A story of the last major war in Europe, when nothing seemed capable of slowing the Nazis—except, the legend goes, the very fast, very unusual Tatra car from Czechoslovakia. A poignant tale of poetic justice, grace in wartime, and the utopian future that wasn't.

You can see a Tatra T87 in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/98653/tatra-t87-four-door-sedan-hans-ledwinka

People have always imagined dragons among them. But they have always imagined them very differently: helping or hurting, making rain or breathing fire. The difference, of course, is us. A brief, beastly history of the creature we can't live with—or without.

You can see many manifestations of dragons, Asian and European, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/dragon

You'll find an example of the tiny gilt bronze dragons used in the "tossing dragons" ritual mentioned in this episode here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12028/dragon-china

Thirty-five years ago, Joe Minter received a vision. Soon, his half-acre property outside Birmingham, Alabama, began to fill with sculpture—reflections on everything from slavery to 9/11 to climate change—fashioned out of junk: car parts, toys, industrial detritus, gizmos of all sorts. An elaborate example of the Southern Black tradition of the “yard show," with Minter as its genial showman. Now, it's among the last of its kind, and as museums and collectors come calling, the race is on to determine the fate of Minter’s art and how to think about it.

You can read more about Minter's art, and that of his fellow Alabama autodidacts, now on view at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, here: https://jcsm.auburn.edu/exhibitions/black-codes-art-and-post-civil-rights-alabama/

You can see one of Minter's creations, now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/131461/old-rugged-cross-joe-minter

The premiere of Season 6! When the work of a brilliant but forgotten artist falls into the lap of a curator, it suggests something uniquely human: pleasure is good, unexpected pleasure even better. But when the surprises keep coming, years later, the story becomes both a mystery and a meditation on patience.

You can see the art of Richard Holzschuh here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Holzschuh

One week until Season 6 begins (March 11)! Here's a bonus encore episode, a highlight from a couple seasons ago about Georgia O'Keeffe and the loner legend that followed her to the end. In the early 1970s, when an ambitious curator comes calling, it seems the head ghost of Ghost Ranch is in fact the host with the most—and hardly ever alone. A fresh look at a myth we can’t stop believing.