Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages Airwave Media

Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, was a renowned Florentine painter during the Renaissance. By the 1470s, Botticelli established his own workshop and gained recognition for his unique style. He received commissions from wealthy patrons, including the powerful Medici family. For the Medici, Botticelli painted portraits and created allegorical and mythological works that showcased his mastery of line, color, and composition. His most famous paintings, "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera," were created during this period.
"The Birth of Venus" depicts the arrival of the goddess Venus on the shore after emerging from the sea. The painting is rich in symbolism, drawing from classical mythology, Neoplatonic philosophy, and Christian theology. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is the central figure. Her nudity, while controversial today, was associated with purity in classical art. The painting is filled with symbolic elements, like the wind gods Zephyrus and Aura representing the forces of nature, and the Hora of Spring welcoming Venus with flowers, signifying her connection to fertility.
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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 of human emotions in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Nobody believed he could do it. While there had been some feature length animations in other countries, they flopped. Disney pioneered new techniques to draw audiences into his fairy tale world. Learn how Disney's Folly became Disney's Triumph as he risked it all to create a work of art like nothing anyone had seen before.
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Berthe Morisot was among the most successful French Impressionist painters during her lifetime. Today she is less well known than her peers like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but in the 19th century, she was the more bankable artist. She was accepted in the Paris Salon, but ultimately she left the salon to participate in the first exhibition of the Impressionists. In this episode we discussed Morisot's painting The Cradle which depicts her sister Edma looking at her baby in a cradle. Both Berthe and Edma were tremendously talented painters who found success exhibiting their work. Edma got married and stopped painting to take on the traditional roles as a wife and mother while Berthe was the breadwinner in her family maintaining her career while her husband looked after their kid.

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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 brought paper from China to Japan. While origami has been practiced for hundreds of years, it has gone through some drastic changes in the way it was perceived by people. Early on when paper was really expensive and labor intensive to produce, origami was for the select few and for special occasions. As paper became more affordable, ordinary people made origami models as gifts or folding cards and envelopes for correspondence. It was used as I said to illustrate concepts like geometry in school and became associated with school children. For a long time, origami remained at a relatively low status dismissed as a children’s craft rather than fine art of a mature artist. Akira Yoshizawa probably elevated the art form more than anyone else. 1954 his first book was published Atarashii Origami Geijutsu (New Origami Art) this established the system of notation for origami folds which is basically the standard for origami instructions today. That same year, he founded the International Origami Center of Tokyo.

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Frank Stella first rose to prominence with his black paintings in 1959. He was a leader of the minimalist movement and at the age of just 23, Stella showed his work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. While he was first known for his minimalist work, Stella reinvented himself throughout his career.
His constant experimentation with form, color, and materials continues to inspire generations of artists. He remained active until his passing on May 4 2024, leaving behind a legacy of groundbreaking works that continue to challenge and redefine our notions of contemporary art.
Frank Stella's story is not just about the creation of art, but about the courage to defy convention and forge a new path. It's a testament to the unwavering pursuit of artistic vision and the transformative power of artistic expression. His life serves as an inspiration to all who dare to dream big and leave their mark on the world, one brushstroke, one shaped canvas, one monumental sculpture at a time.
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Jackson Pollock
Janet Sobel
The Erased Masterpiece
Helen Frankenthaler | The Bay

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Neil Harbisson is a contemporary artist who hears colors. He deliberately chose to hear colors and to make that happen, he underwent surgery which has caused him to become the first person ever to be issued a government ID recognizing him as a cyborg.
Harbisson has a condition known as achromatopsia. For him and others with complete achromatopsia, all three types of cones in the retina are nonfunctional. He sees using only his rods meaning there is no color in his vision. It is a relatively rare condition affecting only about one in every 30,000 people. The thing that is even more rare though is Harbisson’s management of the condition. First off, you might expect someone with this condition not to gravitate toward the arts, but while color is one of the elements of art, it is not required. Art is about human expression and creativity. Harbisson found a very creative means of enhancing his senses. Neil Harbisson has an antenna. Basically, there is a camera at the end of the antenna. A digital camera detects light and stores it as electrical signals. Inside the antenna, the colors are translated into sound. Different hues or colors are converted to different sound frequencies. It is actually attuned to even detect light that is invisible in the infrared and ultraviolet spectra.
Related Episodes:

Who ARTed | Wassily Kandinsky

Art Smart | Photography


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Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
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