Podcasts of the week: art and artists
How is this for a pretentious theory, asked James Marriott in The Times. Nietzsche posited that the greatest art “unites the Apollonian principle (reason, form, harmony, restraint) with the Dionysian (excess, passion, emotion, formlessness)”; and it
strikes me that the reason Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art
“works so brilliantly” is that its two presenters embody that same dialectic. Waldy, the Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak, is Dionysus: a “passionate, paunchy, wild man prone to unstructured flights of rhetorical enthusiasm”. Art dealer Bendor “Bendy” Grosvenor is Apollo: a “demure, reserved, rather fogeyish chap”, who conveys his opinions in a few neat sentences. Together, they rant, digress and bicker to engrossing and illuminating effect. I especially enjoyed a “bust-up” about the early 16th century mannerists, and a delightful battle over Philip Guston’s 1970s “slob art”.
With galleries still closed, many of us are mourning the lost pleasures of an afternoon spent “idly wandering” through rooms adorned with great art, said Madeleine Finlay in The Guardian. The next best thing might just be Dr Janina Ramirez – Art
Detective, which are “lectures-in-miniature”, often with notable guests (Neil Gaiman, Mark Gatiss and Mary Beard have all appeared). The podcast has been running since 2016, and there’s a hefty back catalogue to draw on: listening to it is like going around a gallery with an “enthusiastic and incredibly knowledgeable friend”.
The Lonely Palette is billed as “the podcast that returns art history to the masses”, said Zoë Paskett in the London Evening Standard. Each episode offers a “deep dive” into the history and significance of one piece, from Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini
Portrait to Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s Dogs Playing Poker.
Art History for All is another “sharp, snappy and highly informative” podcast that looks at single artworks in depth, said Justine Goode in Vanity Fair. It’s “intelligent yet accessible” – and encourages listeners to explore their own subjectivity. To hear experts talk in depth about art news and art world trends, I recommend The Art Newspaper Podcast, said Jori Finkel in The New York Times. Or for a more freewheeling take on the art world, there is Talk Art, from the British actor-collector Russell Tovey and the gallerist Robert Diament. In each instalment, they are joined by an artist (Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry) or collector (Lena Dunham, Michael Stipe) for “fast-paced conversational fun”. For a US podcast that offers the “insider feeling of being seated at a chic gallery dinner next to a hotshot dealer or curator” try In Other Words, produced by a division of Sotheby’s.