The Lonely Palette

The Lonely Palette is on break until November 2019, so every Wednesday in October, a different Hub & Spoke producer will take the host's chair to present an episode of their show that Tamar is especially fond of. Enjoy this month's podcast petri dish of art, culture, history, and society, and subscribe to any and all Hub & Spoke shows at www.hubspokeaudio.org. This week: The Constant is a podcast...

The Lonely Palette is on break until November 2019, so every Wednesday in October, a different Hub & Spoke producer will take the host's chair to present an episode of their show that Tamar is especially fond of. Enjoy this month's podcast petri dish of art, culture, history, and society, and subscribe to any and all Hub & Spoke shows at www.hubspokeaudio.org. This week: Open Source with Christoph...

The Lonely Palette is on break until November 2019, so every Wednesday in October, a different Hub & Spoke producer will take the host's chair to present an episode of their show that Tamar is especially fond of. Enjoy this month's podcast petri dish of art, culture, history, and society, and subscribe to any and all Hub & Spoke shows at www.hubspokeaudio.org. This week: Charles Gustine's Iconogra...

On July 29, 2019 (the day after the birth of my son!), host and producer Danielle Monroe posted this interview we had recorded the week before for her podcast "Artists of Camberville." This was one of best conversations I've ever had about the origins of "The Lonely Palette" and the trials and tribulations of art-viewing, meaning-making, script-writing, audio podcasting about the visual, and, like...

In which we go beneath the flowers, the unibrow, the broken body, and the shadow of her marriage, to reframe the fame of Frida Kahlo: the Cult Icon of Humanness. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2019/7/14/episode-40-frida-kahlos-dos-mujeres Music used: Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger” The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, “Jat Poure,” “Li Fo...

It isn't 17th century Dutch art if we're not going so deep into Rembrandt's soul and so close to the meticulous details of his virtuosic portraiture that we make the guards nervous. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2019/5/23/episode-39-rembrandt-van-rijns-portrait-of-aeltje-uylenburgh-1632 Music used: Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger” The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du...

Tamar met Dan when she was a worshipful high school freshman and he was (to her) an übercool junior who was not only the arts editor of Thoughtprints, the school's art/lit mag, but also spent his free time in the fine art studio, bending the charcoal like Beckmann. Now he's the Director of the Carpenter Center of Visual Arts at Harvard University, she's an art history podcaster, and they reconnect...

The later work of Russian ex-pat turned German Expressionist turned indispensable Bauhaus faculty member Wassily Kandinsky is a lot like the Bauhaus itself: a disparate collection of pieces parts that ends up assembling itself into a transparent, efficient, powerfully cohesive, form-follows-function whole. This episode was a collaboration with WBUR's Radio Open Source: check them out at radioopens...

Let's explore America the Beautiful, the Complicated, and the Contradictory, where a purple mountain has no sense of its own majesty, through the lens of the quintessential dorm room poster photographer Ansel Adams. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2019/3/8/episode-37-ansel-adams-the-tetons-and-snake-river-grand-teton-national-park-wyoming-1942 Music used: Django Reinhardt,...

The fruits of the Second Annual Year-End Patreon Listener Challenge has us staring directly into the cold dead eyes of the beast! How could this restoration of a forgotten 19th century Spanish fresco have gotten so grotesquely botched, and what does it tell us about the challenges of art restoration, religious iconography, and iconoclasm? And more importantly, Jesus, why you look like a shark? See...

On October 10, 2018, both the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Cecilia Vicuña herself were generous enough to give me the opportunity to take a few moments away from the installation of "Disappeared Quipu" and interview Vicuña. We talked about bridging the masculinity of Land Art and the femininity of Fiber Art, the origins of Vicuña's life as an artist, and how her own awareness has evolved throu...

Thick woolen knots, suspended from the ceiling, alive with projections and immersed in sound. You might not realize that Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña has woven together your awareness of your own awareness, but maybe you just needed some help translating it. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/12/1/episode-35-cecilia-vicuas-disappeared-quipu-2018 Music used: Django Reinh...

We're trying a little something different today: what happens when Disney scares the pants off you as a kid, and then, in mining the roots of your existential dread, you realize that Henri Matisse and Igor Stravinsky both had their respective pants scared off too, and that this communal pants-scaring explains a whole heck of a lot about early 20th century modernism? See the images: http://www.thel...

Powder those wigs and ungird those loins: today we're diving deep into the curves, pastels, and licentious yearnings of a ridiculously saucy little style known as Rococo. See the Images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/9/8/episode-33-jean-honor-fragonard-the-desired-moment-c-1770 Music Used: Django Reinhardt, “Django’s Tiger” The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot...

Ever have a day when you just feel a little... blocked? Well, sure as God made little green apples, Surrealist René Magritte feels you. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/8/24/episode-32-ren-magrittes-son-of-man-1964 Music used: Django Reinhardt, "Django's Tiger" The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Roundpine", "Borough", "Building The Sl...

Trying to capture time in art is like trying to pin a wave upon the sand or hold a moonbeam in your hand. So leave it to Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to do it so effectively by taking us to the Golden Age of Cinema. "Seeking Stillness" is on view at the MFA, Boston until September 3, 2018. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/7/5/episode-31-hiroshi-sugimotos-byrd...

Join the OG Ninja Turtle as he guides you into the Renaissance by way of an exquisite tour of heaven. See the image: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/5/28/episode-30-donatellos-madonna-of-the-clouds-c-1425-1435 Music Used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" Lobo Loco, "Piano Cora Theme" The Blue Dot Sessions, "UpUpUp and Over", "Slow Line Stomp", "Lakeside Path", "Perspirat...

Welcome to the cult of the punk: where the skin is flayed, the contortions are twisty, and the struggle is real.  So why can't we get enough? See the image: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/4/23/episode-29-egon-schieles-nude-self-portrait-1910 Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Taoudella", "Fifteen Street", "Smooth Stone", "Scraper", "The...

Yoko Ono. You may have heard of her. She hooked up with that musician that time. Just under the wire, we end Women's History Month with a peek beneath Ono's art and reputation - and why we need to reconsider both. See the image: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/3/29/episode-28-yoko-onos-cut-piece-1964 Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Pl...

Can a comic strip be elevated to fine art? Or is Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein just plain dotty? See the image: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/3/5/episode-27-roy-lichtensteins-ohhhalright-1964 Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Le Marais", "The Molerat", "Lemon and Melon", "Via Verre", "Lord Weasel", "Entrap" Joe Dassin, “Les Champs-Elyse...

Your Listener Patreon Challenge has been accepted! And now, let's dive together into kitsch: the frequency low enough for us all to hear. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2018/2/13/episode-26-cm-coolidges-dogs-playing-poker-1903 Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Rose Ornamental," "Flattered," "Arizona Moon," "Laser Focus," "Al...

In this special episode, we listen to the audio from the live event at the PRX Podcast Garage, "Keepers of the Culture: A Celebration of Meduna and Holmes," which I had the privilege of participating in at the end of January. In it I chat with collage artist Ekua Holmes, play her some audio I produced on her work, and then we listen to art historian Barry Gaither give the curator talk to end all c...

Our lady of the hour, muse of Dan Brown, satisfier of bucket lists, those eyes, that smile, La Gioconda, El Hefe. Just in time for the holidays, we bring you a super-sized episode on a super-sized love affair with a dinky little portrait. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2017/12/17/episode-25-mission-mona-lisa Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Bl...

Whether you think Mark Rothko is the portal to spiritual transcendence or emotional-ambulance-chasing bunk, let's take the necessary time to explore his work without feeling like our souls are at stake. See the images: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2017/11/20/episode-24-meditations-on-mark-rothko Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" The Blue Dot Sessions, "A Simple...

At the intersection of past and future sits a pack of hormonal dudes punching each other and making beautiful art. See the image: http://www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2017/10/30/episode-23-umberto-boccionis-unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-1913 Music used: The Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" Podington Bear, "Kaleidoscope" The Blue Dot Sessions, "Chase and We Follow", "The Telling"...