The Object

Back when The Odyssey was written down, some 2,700 years ago, the greatest thing you could do in life was to die. A glorious death in battle was the path to immortality for, well, mortals. An idea that resurfaces throughout history until fairly recently—when it meets its match in a war of many deaths and little glory. Whether you've seen the new Odyssey film with Matt Damon or not, this episode will give a sense of the central conflict—to seek glory abroad or comfort at home.

You can see the "Kiss of Victory" sculpture that kicks off the episode, and launched the career of Sir Alfred Gilbert, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

Also, SAVE THE DATE: Our next live taping of The Object podcast will be November 15 at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium of the Minneapolis Institute of Art with special musical guest Chastity Brown! Featuring quizzes, curator conversation, music, and storytelling all about the women artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance on its 100th anniversary. 

Learn more about The Object LIVE!, our series of live podcast tapings here.

Even when horses were transportation, they were also transportive, inspiring poetry and art and sometimes war. Here, in the Year of the Horse, we recount the incredible saga of the so-called Celestial Horse, a breed from central Asia that seemed to represent everything good about this world and the next, driving a Chinese emperor mad with envy and sending tens of thousands of men to their doom. A story of power and beauty and the eternal wish for immortality.

You can see a bronze statue of the Celestial Horse through August 9 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in "Year of the Horse: Hoofbeats Through Time" in the Bell Family Decorative Arts Court.

Also, SAVE THE DATE: Our next live taping of The Object podcast will be November 15 at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium of the Minneapolis Institute of Art with special musical guest Chastity Brown! Featuring quizzes, curator conversation, music, and storytelling all about the women artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance on its 100th anniversary. 

Learn more about The Object LIVE!, our series of live podcast tapings here.

Santiago Rusiñol is a newly married heir to a Barcelona textile fortune when he decides to become an artist in Paris instead, in the 1880s, influencing Picasso and inventing a new vocabulary for modern art. But when he comes across an idyllic seaside village back in Spain, he starts to paint an ideal life, including a quiet, summery patio you’d want to move into and never leave. And then he paints more patios and gardens until his quest for meaning becomes a question: What are we running from? Can we ever be satisfied with what already exists?

You can see one of Rusiñol's stunning patio pictures, recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, in gallery 355, the perfect ode to summer escape.

You’ll also find free summer programs at Mia every week through September, including outdoor concerts, food trucks, art-making, and more. Check out the calendar at Artsmia.org.

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It is one of the greatest artworks of the Italian Renaissance, and for the better part of a century it was rolled up in storage. A tapestry—the art form of popes, kings, and emperors—bigger than any painting that has ever come to America from 16th-century Italy. Made in the famous Medici gardens where the Renaissance was nurtured. Hidden away at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Until now.

A story of power and glory, luck and determination—and Dante and Virgil, the two poets of "The Inferno" poised at the brink of hell in the tapestry. (Oh, and Beatrice, Dante's muse—she manages to get in the story, too.) A tapestry that is once again on view for a few months only. Until back to storage it goes.

A big thank-you to Max Bryant, curator of European decorative art at Mia, who tells us of his incredible discovery, why tapestry is underrated, and more.

You can see the tapestry from July 11, 2026, through January 31, 2027, in "Back from the Underworld" at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

And you can read more about Dante and Virgil's hellish meeting at Beatrice's behest in a fine analysis here by poet and scholar Diane Mehta.

Journalist Eric Kelsey was already familiar with "Sonja," the enigmatic portrait sometimes called the German Mona Lisa: a woman in black with short hair and cigarettes, sitting in a cafe. An iconic image of free-spirited Weimar Berlin almost since it was painted by Christian Schad in 1928. Then he realized who she really was. 

Kelsey has now spent years researching his connection to "Sonja" and the dramatic true story of a life of luck and love, cruelty and tragedy, as Weimar Germany gave way to Nazi Germany. A story of the individual human dramas behind big history—and who gets to tell them when the private becomes public. 

"Sonja" is the face of the groundbreaking traveling exhibition "Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945: Masterworks from the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin".  You can see her—and more than 70 other paintings and sculptures from the National Gallery of Germany—at the Minneapolis Institute of Art through July 19, 2026. 

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