Vienna in the early 1900s is a kind of paradise of power and beauty, the center of an empire that will seemingly go on forever. Only an eccentric young artist, who sees faces in trees and finds God in the forest, seems to understand the fall that is coming. A loss of innocence that will consume him—and much of the world.
You can see the work of Egon Schiele, Josef Hoffman, and the other artists, designers, writers, and philosophers mentioned in this episode in the new exhibition "Timber! Art and Woodwork at the Fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire" at Mia.
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24:59
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24:59
Encore Episode: The Department of Missing Limbs
Save the date: The next live taping of The Object podcast will be October 30 at 7 p.m. at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, absolutely free. Special guest and ticket info coming soon. Now, enjoy this encore episode about a story as old as life itself: things fall apart. But what really happened to all those ancient statues missing arms, legs, heads, and other appendages? And how have we come to treat them as normal—a normal way of seeing the classical age, like paintings of the Renaissance or black-and-white photos of the 1900s? Have they shaped a perception of the past as more remote, mysterious, and, well, broken than it really was?
See some of the battered artworks mentioned in this episode, including the Tiber muse, a Graeco-Roman torso, an ancient Egyptian figure, and the Venus de Milo.
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24:35
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24:35
The Curator in the Wall
Truth and fiction collide in two stories of museum life. One of a curator who goes missing in the 1950s. The other of a curator who finds himself in the aftermath of World War I, a life chronicled in diaries recently found inside a forgotten storage space. A life filled with beauty and tragedy and the redemptive power of art.
Save the date: The next live taping of The Object is October 30 at 7 p.m. at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, all about the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the art of the Jazz Age. Guests and details coming soon!
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27:01
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27:01
Encore Episode: The Mountain That Came to Dinner
Save the date: The next free live taping of The Object podcast will be October 30 at 7 p.m.! Special guests and ticket info TBA. Now, enjoy this encore episode about one of the largest jade sculptures in the world, a 640-pound mountain commissioned by the Chinese emperor. In 1901, in the ugly aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, it ends up leaving China—only to resurface on the dinner table of a lumber baron. It’s a story as old as stone: can anyone be king of the hill for long?
You can see "Jade Mountain Illustrating the Gathering of Scholars at the Lanting Pavilion," now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here.
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25:31
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25:31
That Got Weird: The Renaissance You Never Knew
The Renaissance, which began in Italy some 700 years ago, may be one of the last true ideals we have. It's this beacon of beauty and truth that led us out of the Dark Ages. It gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But the Renaissance was also extremely, delightfully weird. A story of what happens when repression recedes and freedom moves in—and how this strangeness gave us our modern world.
You can see some of the "weird" artworks discussed in the episode here. Then, if you're able, see them in person at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
”The Object” podcast explores the surprising, true stories behind museum objects with wit and curiosity. An object’s view of us. Hosted by Tim Gihring, produced by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
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