National Gallery of Art | Talks

Aug 12 2022 1002 ep. 49 mins 2.3k

National Gallery of Art | Talks Podcast artwork

Messages, meanings, movements—how does art history help us understand our world? Join curators, historians, artists, musicians and filmmakers as they explore art and its histories in a search for our shared humanity. Download the programs, then visit us on the National Mall or at www.nga.gov, where you can explore many of the works of art mentioned.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Howardena Pindell on Social Change

Aug 12 2022 51 mins

Howardena Pindell discusses how social issues and the prospect of societal change impact her art and life. In her artistic practice, Pindell’s work reflects a fascination with gridded, serialized imagery and surface texture. She often employs lengthy, metaphorical processes of destruction/reconstruction. Even in her more politically charged work, Pindell reverts to these thematic

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, Session III: “Blackness is not peripheral to the American project; it is the foundation”

May 03 2022 51 mins

Clint Smith, Renée Stout, and Hank Willis Thomas present on the role of history and memory in shaping American culture and identity. This is the third talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wro

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, Session II: “I built this altar for them”: Mining the Archives to Uplift Untold Stories

May 03 2022 51 mins

Erica Buddington, Nona Faustine, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers present archival research–based practices that create and uplift missing narratives. This is the second talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooke

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, Session I: “the afterlife of slavery”

Apr 26 2022 51 mins

Artists Rosana Paulino and Cameron Rowland explore the lasting legacy of slavery in their works of art. This is the first talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slav

Season 2, Episode 8: Sonia De Los Santos and Auguste Renoir’s “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar”

May 31 2022 51 mins

Guitarist Sonia De Los Santos hails from Mexico, where as a child she was exposed to different musical influences. In Auguste Renoir’s “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar,” De Los Santos sees echoes of her younger self. Her song “Sueña” is an ode to dreams. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/National

Season 2, Episode 7: Maria Schneider and George Bellows’s “The Lone Tenement”

May 17 2022 51 mins

Maria Schneider composed “Bulería, Soleá y Rumba” in the wake of a cancer diagnosis. Inspired by American artists such as Robert Henri and George Bellows, Schneider discusses “art for life’s sake” that tells a story of people—like the evocative figures in Bellows’s The Lone Tenement. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►�

Season 2: Episode 6: Delfeayo Marsalis and Hawkins Bolden’s “Untitled”

May 03 2022 51 mins

This work reminds jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis of the proud, hard-working generations that raised him. A history of struggle may suggest the minor key, but Marsalis ultimately chose upbeat music to celebrate those who fought and made it work. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS Natio

Season 2: Episode 5: Peter Sheppard Skærved and Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser”

Apr 26 2022 51 mins

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman discuss Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser” and its symbolism of contrast: light and dark, life and death. Skærved plays a 17th-century violin sonatina that echoes similar contrasts of sensuality and fatality, beauty and mortality. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? Nationa

Season 2, Episode 4: Daniel Ho and Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life series

Apr 05 2022 51 mins

Musician Daniel Ho spent much of his childhood on the water, so he relates to Thomas Cole’s river paintings. Ho responds to Voyage of Life with an original suite. Starting with simple harmonies to represent childhood, he gradually introduces complexity. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/daniel-ho-thomas-col

Season 2, Episode 3: Sa-Roc and Margaret Burroughs’s Sleeping Boy

Apr 26 2022 51 mins

Rapper Sa-Roc’s music speaks to different aspects of Black experience, including the vulnerability of many Black kids—similar to the boy in Margaret Burroughs’s linocut, who hides himself. Her song “Forever” invites listeners not to hide, but to shine and share their “inner light” with the world. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://