PORTRAITS National Portrait Gallery
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- Arts
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Art, biography, history and identity collide in this podcast from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Join Director Kim Sajet as she chats with artists, historians, and thought leaders about the big and small ways that portraits shape our world.
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Brilliant Exiles
Paris in the early 1900s was a magnet for convention-defying American women. It offered a delicious taste of freedom, which they used to explode the gender norms of their day, and to explore new kinds of art, literature, dance and design. In the process, they became arbiters of modernism.
This episode, we raise the curtain on the National Portrait Galleryâs âBrilliant Exilesâ exhibition with curator Robyn Asleson. It features 60 trailblazing women, including the dancer, singer and spy Josephine Baker, and the bookshop owner Sylvia Beach, who took a chance on James Joyce. Also in the lineup: Ada âBricktopâ Smith, whose bustling nightclub became a hub for American jazz musicians, and Romaine Brooks, the painter who reinvented herself, and then reinvented herself again.
The exhibition runs from April 26, 2024, to February 23, 2025.
See the portraits we discussed:
Ada âBricktopâ Smith, by Carl Van Vechten
Josephine Baker, by Stanislaus Julian Walery
Gertrude Stein, by Pablo Picasso
Sylvia Beach, by Paul-Ămile BĂ©cat
Romaine Brooks, self-portrait -
Mall Art
The National Mall is a great canvas, in part because of all the history embedded there. Itâs been a place of protest, celebration and mourning. It also hosts some spectacular monuments. But critic Salamishah Tillet says there is a lot of history missing from the Mall as a commemorative space, like desegregation and the displacement of Indigenous people.
Kim speaks with Salamishah about the âBeyond Graniteâ exhibition she co-curated on the Mall, and also with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the artist who created the largest portrait ever to go on display there. It was a six-acre composite portrait of several anonymous young men who had one thing in common: They all identified themselves as Americans.
See the artwork we discussed:
Out Of Many, One, by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada
Of Thee We Sing, by vanessa german
The Soil You SeeâŠ, by Wendy Red Star
Americaâs Playground: DC, by Derrick Adams -
Lincoln Hiding In Plain Sight
A globe turned to Haiti. A glove on the ground. A life-size portrait of President Abraham Lincoln contains intriguing details that can be read as a freeze-frame of race relations at the time of his assassination. It also may be the most lifelike depiction of the 16th presidentâ standing to his full height and in full color.
The oil painting by W.F.K. Travers was âhidden in plain sightâ for decades at a municipal building in New Jersey. Biographer Ted Widmer played a role in re-discovering the portrait and he speaks with Kim about its place in history.
Traversâ Lincoln is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery, on loan from the Hartley Dodge Foundation, and courtesy of the citizens of the Borough of Madison, New Jersey.
See the portrait here. -
Social Media And The Subway
There are not many portrait artists who get recognized on the street, but it happens to Devon Rodriguez all the time.
After quietly honing his skill for a decade, Devon started posting videos of his live drawings of New York City subway commuters to social media. The videos took off, earning him some 50 million followers and placing portraiture in front of a huge new audience.
Kim speaks with Devon about the mentors who had his back, and this new model for showing artâ not in museums, but on screens.
See the portraits we discussed:
Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez
John Ahearn, by Devon Rodriguez
âThe Rodriguez Twins,â by John Ahearn
MarĂa Elena Estrada, by Devon Rodriguez
Devon Rodriguez draws Kim Sajet, Instagram -
Copyright vs Copywrong
Copyright law is complicated, especially when it comes to visual art. So there was a lot of fanfare around the Supreme Courtâs May ruling involving a celebrity portrait photographer, the pop artist Andy Warhol, and an orange silk screen of the late musician Prince. Would the decision give us some clarity around whatâs âinfringingâ in the world of appropriation art?
Lauryn Guttenplan, former deputy general counsel for the Smithsonian, walks us through some high-profile copyright cases from the past, as well as the Supreme Courtâs decision.
See the artwork we discussed:
Obama âHopeâ Portrait by Shepard Fairey, original photo by Mannie Garcia
âCanal Zoneâ Collage by Richard Prince, original photo by Patrick Cariou
âOrange Princeâ by Andy Warhol
Prince Portrait by Lynn Goldsmith -
Bonus: The Toxic Book of Faces
Silhouettes were a hugely popular and democratic form of portraiture in the 19th century. So an old ledger book full of cut paper profiles at the National Portrait Gallery caught a conservatorâs eye. It promised a rare glimpse at people from all different backgrounds who lived in early America. It also held a surprise: It was laced with poison.
Lizzie Peabody, host of the Smithsonianâs Sidedoor podcast, brings us the story of the book, the man who created it, and the web of overlapping stories tucked inside.
See William Bacheâs book of silhouettes here.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating!
Love the stories that go with the portraits. The hosts voice is so easy to listen to!
Fantastic!
A fantastic podcast from an inspirational host and organization. Definitely worth a listen!
Another great episode
Thanks Kim for another great episode. Looking forward to the exhibition. Look forward to the new season!