Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Ian Capstick’s creative evolution spans from theatrical performance and prop making to a high-stakes career as a political pundit and creative director. After years of advocating for marginalized voices in Canada’s capital through his agency, MediaStyle, Capstick transitioned into fiber arts, finding a new medium in "quilty banners". His work intentionally blurs the historical divide between fine...

Giotto di Bondone, born around 1267 near Florence, is widely recognized as a pivotal figure who transformed the trajectory of Western art by breaking away from the flat, spiritual symbolism of the Byzantine style. Legend, as recorded by the 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, holds that the master painter Cimabue discovered Giotto as a young shepherd boy sketching lifelike sheep on a rock. Dur...

Today, we’re going to look back at the winner of this year’s Arts Madness Tournament. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been listening and participating in the Tournament. This year was the biggest one yet. We started with 64 diverse artists and artworks. After six weeks of head to head matches and 13,757 votes Frank Lloyd Wright has come out on top.  Wright was been a formidable a...

The Codex Borgia is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican manuscript, a 36-foot folded document made of animal hide, dating from the 13th to early 16th centuries. Created by Indigenous peoples, likely in central Mexico, it serves as a religious and divinatory almanac used by priests. Filled with intricate depictions of deities like Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, it illustrates the 260-day tonalpoh...

This week, I got to talk to Kory Stamper, author of True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color, exploring how color is a complex intersection of physics, physiology, and psychology. Human color perception is defined not just by wavelengths of light, but by the brain’s interpretive processes using specialized cells in the retina known as rods and cones. While rods detect light an...

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653) was a preeminent Italian Baroque painter and one of the most accomplished artists of the 17th century. Born in Rome as the daughter of the esteemed painter Orazio Gentileschi, she developed her craft in an era where women were largely excluded from formal art academies and professional guilds. Despite enduring a traumatic assault by a tutor and a grueling, high-pr...

This week, I have an interview with Gavin Whitehead, the creator and host of The Art of Crime and a new limited series, Raven. Find Gavin online: Raven The Art of Crime www.theartofcrimepodcast.com The African American Wax Museum of Harlem was established in 1989 by the eccentric artist and fashion designer Raven Chanticleer. Located in the basement of a brownstone on 164th Street, the museum feat...

Chuck Close said when a problem seems overwhelming, you should break it down into smaller pieces. To tackle the photorealistic faces, Chuck Close would use a grid. He broke the image down into sections allowing him to focus on the lines, shapes, and proportions one little bit at a time. In his early works, he would erase the grid as he painted, but as he matured, he chose to lean into the grid. He...

Alfred Sisley (1839–1899) was a pivotal figure in the Impressionist movement, uniquely distinguished by his unwavering devotion to landscape painting. Born in Paris to affluent British parents, Sisley initially moved to London to pursue a career in commerce but found himself captivated by the landscape works of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery. Upon returning to France in 1...

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a pivotal figure in 20th-century architecture, began his career in Germany, where he was deeply influenced by his early exposure to masonry and materials. Born in 1886, Mies refined his minimalist aesthetic, famously summarized by the motto "less is more," through his work in Berlin with modern design pioneers like Peter Behrens. His tenure as the director of the Bauhaus...

Fischetti’s work often explores "abstract medicine"—the idea that art can serve as a vehicle for healing and spiritual inquiry. Her background in professional dance and yoga heavily informs her physical approach to painting, which she describes as a ritualistic performance. Fischetti often incorporates personal history and organic elements into her work, such as the use of wine to represent her It...

Today I am sharing a bit from my other podcast, Fun Facts Daily. It has been wonderful making Who ARTed for the last few years and the spring is always one of my favorite times as we get into the Arts Madness Tournament, but for the last year, I have been working on Fun Facts Daily to help shine a light on some of the awesome things in the world beyond art. I hope you enjoy these episodes sharing...

Alexander Josephson is a Toronto-based architect, lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, and the visionary co-founder of PARTISANS. Since its inception in 2012, PARTISANS has established itself as an award-winning architecture studio dedicated to subverting expectations through the integration of design, technology, and cultural storytelling. Beyond traditional ar...

Michelangelo was considered to be one of the greatest examples of a Renaissance man. He is also one of the worst examples of personal hygiene. Learn a little bit about the artist who painted the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel. Related episodes: ⁠Michelangelo | The Sistine Chapel Ceiling⁠ ⁠Art Smart: The Renaissance This is an encore presentation. Every January/February, I release daily episodes to...

Maria Martinez belonged to the Tewa-speaking Pueblo people, known for their rich artistic heritage. Pottery-making was deeply rooted in Puebloan culture, serving as a means of artistic expression and a reflection of their close connection with the natural world. Maria grew up watching her family members create pottery, learning the traditional techniques. Of course, we seldom talk about those who...

On November 26, 1922, Howard Carter prepared to enter the tomb of a little-known pharaoh. Nobody had set foot inside the space for over 3,000 years, but as Carter held up his candle, his partner, Lord Carnarvon who had financed the expedition called out asking if he saw anything. Carter responded, “Yes, wonderful things.” Though his reign may have been short, the treasures found in Tutankhamun’s t...

In 1778, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun met Marie Antoinette at the Royal palace in Versailles. The queen had heard of Le Brun’s talent and asked to paint her portrait. Marie Antoinette loved the way Le Brun painted her and from that point on, she was pretty much her official royal portrait painter. Le Brun painted 30 portraits of the queen. Almost as quickly as her star rose, her fortunes changed. In 17...

Jason deCaires Taylor, is a UK-based contemporary artist who has seamlessly merged art and environmental activism. Renowned for his captivating underwater sculptures, Taylor's creations serve as a powerful reminder of the urgent need to address environmental concerns. Crafted with meticulous detail, his sculptures not only captivate the eye but also provide a haven for marine life, fostering the g...

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world, located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II, it is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and was likely intended as the king's tomb. The temple's construction, which involved 300,000 workers and took over 30 years, showcases the Khmer Empire's impressive architectural and engineering skills. Its intricate...

My guest this week is Jen Leban from The Art of Education. For any fellow art teachers listening, check out The Art of Ed Community and I had the priviledge of writing for the AOE magazine last year, so check out my articles. We're kicking off the annual Arts Madness Tournament and I thought there would be no better way to start things off than inviting Jen to join me for a friendly discussion abo...

Herb Williams is an incredibly talented sculptor bringing crayons to a whole new dimension. I sat down to talk to Williams about his background, his artistic influences, and exactly how and why he uses crayons to sculpt. He shared his memories of making art as a child as well as his experience working in a foundry making lost wax castings before he decided to pursue a literal dream of making sculp...

Diego Velazques was one of the most significant painters of Spain's Golden Age in the 17th century. He was a master of both portraiture and genre painting, Las Meninas is a sort of mix of both. We see people who seem rather formally dressed by today’s standards, but the subject is also, it was a peak behind the curtain of royal life. Withing the work, the first focal point would be the little girl...

One Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous works is not housed in a museum. It is in the Convent of Santa Maria in Milan Italy. It seems totally fitting for a depiction of the last supper was painted on the wall in the convent’s dining hall. Visitors today are often surprised by how enormous the work it. The People are life sized on this massive 15 by 29 foot painting. Another surprising fact is that whi...

The Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Calendar Stone, is a large, round stone carving that represents Aztec mythology and cosmology. It depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun, with the date 13 Reed marking the start of the fifth and final sun. It was created in the 15th century and is about 3 and a half meters wide, almost a meter thick, and weighs 25 tons. Learn more about the history an...

Michelangelo Merisi, born in 1571 amidst the darkness of the plague, would come to be known not by his christened name but by the name of his birthplace – Caravaggio. Orphaned young, the specter of loss would forever paint itself onto the canvas of his life. Yet, from this darkness, a genius of light and shadow would emerge, revolutionizing the art world with his raw and dramatic style. While cont...