Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time

Jul 16 2024 109
Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time Podcast artwork

Stories of the materials used in making art are often as thought-provoking and illuminating as the objects themselves. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Immaterial examines the materials of art and what they can reveal about history and humanity. Each episode looks at a single material: paper, clay, jade, shells, and others, exploring the qualities and meanings that are often overlooked.

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Blankets and Quilts: Threads of Identity

Jul 16 2024 40 mins  
What happens when our most intimate possessions end up in art museums? Blankets comfort and keep us warm. They accompany us through our lives. They are keepers of some of our most intimate stories. We look at a group of artists who harness this power of blankets and quilts as totems for memory, community and cultural survival. Guests: Loretta Pettway Bennett, Gee's Bend quilt maker

Space, Part 2: Behind the Scenes at The Met

Jul 02 2024 38 mins  
What is hidden in the 'empty' spaces of an art museum? The Met is more than a museum of art. It is a city unto itself: population 2,000, with a transient population of 5 million. The Met is 21 buildings nested together like puzzle pieces, and it takes 400,000 light bulbs to illuminate all the spaces. But who actually changes those light bulbs? In this episode, peek behind the curta

Space, Part 1: Giving Form to a Feeling

Jun 18 2024 32 mins  
How does an artist give presence to absence? Bronze, wood, paint, and stone—classic materials for art making. But what if you're trying and struggling to convey a vast expanse, a terrible loss or a haunting presence? In this episode we'll look at two artists who turned to the material of space to express what nothing else could. Guests: Rachel Whiteread, sculptor Brinda Kumar, As

Stone: Making and Breaking Legacies

Jun 04 2024 42 mins  
What happens when the unbreakable breaks? Throughout art museums around the world, you’ll find ancient stone statues of rulers and marble monuments immortalizing noblemen. These objects were made to survive decay and destruction, to remain intact and whole. But from the moment that stone is extracted from the earth, it is bound to become a more fragmented version of itself–chis

Introducing: Immaterial Season 2

May 21 2024 2 mins  
What is hiding in the material choices of artists and makers? Immaterial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s marquee podcast, is back with eight more episodes that reveal the emotional origins and transformative power of art through the lens of materials. This season we learn from Mexican artisans keeping centuries-old traditions alive; we go to ancient Mesopotamia to understand ti

Bonus Episode: Tarot

Sep 14 2022 26 mins  
Grab a cup of tea and join us for a bonus episode on tarot.

Metals, Part Two

Aug 31 2022 49 mins  
Let’s talk about the metals that break the rules

Metals, Part One

Aug 17 2022 56 mins  
Dive into the magic of iron, bronze, lead, and copper

Linen

Aug 03 2022 44 mins  
Suit up as we undress the complex legacy of linen

Jade

Jul 20 2022 41 mins  
How did a Māori hei tiki find its way halfway across the world to The Met?