logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2020
16m 47s

7: The Love Story

Bbc Radio 3
About this episode

Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative comedy. His whole life was an extravagant show and his influence spreads right across the 20th century.

Cravan went through life using multiple mysterious personas. He was the nephew of Oscar Wilde, a boxing champion, a notorious art critic, a scandalous performer, a deserter, the husband of modernist poet Mina Loy, and was pursued by the CIA.

This mystery story, led by writer Ross Sutherland, tracks across twenty countries as Cravan's outlandish persona shifts between incarnations. Ross's journey leads him to Cravan's greatest riddle of all - his disappearance in the Gulf of Mexico.

In this episode Ross investigates Cravan's relationship with modernist poet Mina Loy.

This programme contains very strong language.

Writer and Presenter: Ross Sutherland Produced for the BBC by Melvin Rickarby Music by Jeremy Warmsley

Up next
Mar 2025
Digging for Words
In 1773, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American to publish a collection of poems. Jade Cuttle looks at the way her poems were described and asks what do we categorise as nature writing? Her essay considers the idea of "coining" and the work of a new generation of poet ... Show More
13m 49s
Mar 2025
Workplace performance
What connects actors with baristas? In 1983, the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild published a book called The Managed Heart which studied the working world of airline stewards. Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal’s essay considers what it means when a waiter smiles as they serve ... Show More
11m 10s
Mar 2025
The crime of creation
The Japanese philosopher Yujin Nagasawa says the majority of people are what he calls ‘existential optimists’. What does this mean for ideas about evil and the creation of life? Jack Symes’ essay takes us through the views of thinkers including Schopenhauer, Stephen Law and Camus ... Show More
12m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2022
Kit Harington, Chris Riddell on Jan Pieńkowski, Jamal Edwards, Surrealism
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington and director Max Webster discuss their new production of Henry V, and why they chose to make Henry a more complex character than the usual patriotic hero.Jan Pieńkowski, who has died aged 85, was a brilliant illustrator of children’s books, incl ... Show More
42m 17s
Apr 2023
Sally Wainwright
Award-winning television dramatist and director Sally Wainwright talks to John Wilson about her formative cultural influences. After learning the art of screenwriting whilst working on Coronation Street, she made her name with her suburban comedy drama At Home With The Braithwait ... Show More
43m 52s
May 2024
Crash from Death of an Artist: Krasner and Pollock
You’ve heard of artist Jackson Pollock, but you may have never heard of Lee Krasner. Krasner was an artist, Pollock’s wife, and the woman who made him famous. She also changed everything about the landscape of modern art. Death of an Artist: Krasner and Pollock is a story about l ... Show More
22m 6s
Apr 2022
Best Of: Comic Jerrod Carmichael / Musician Richard Thompson
Comic, actor and writer Jerrod Carmichael goes deeper into the secrets he reveals in his new HBO comedy special, Rothaniel — secrets about his real name, his family tree, and his sexual orientation. Carmichael's new special is directed by Bo Burnham. A previous one was directed b ... Show More
48m 27s
Jun 2024
Introducing Death of an Artist: Krasner and Pollock
Thanks for listening to The Professor. If you're looking for a podcast to dive into next, we have something that you might like. It's a called Death of an Artist: Krasner and Pollock, from Pushkin Industries. You’ve heard of Jackson Pollock, but you may have never heard of Lee Kr ... Show More
21m 56s
Oct 2016
Arthur Russell: Vanished into Music
The writer Olivia Laing presents an imaginative portrait of Arthur Russell.Arthur Russell was a cellist, a composer, a songwriter and a disco auteur. He was active in the New York downtown scene of the 1970s and was a frequent collaborator with the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Phi ... Show More
31m 21s
Mar 2023
Juliana Lamy, "You Were Watching from the Sand" (Red Hen Press, 2023)
Playful, kinetic, and devastating in turn, You Were Watching from the Sand (Red Hen Press, 2023) is a collection in which Haitian men, women, and children who find their lives cleaved by the interminably strange bite back at the bizarre with their own oddities. In "belly," a youn ... Show More
38m 26s
Mar 2014
Elif Shafak - The Forty Rules of Love
This month we’re talking to one of Turkey’s foremost writers Elif Shafak. She’s answering your questions about her bestselling novel The Forty Rules of Love, an investigation into love, mysticism and the life of the famed Sufi poet Rumi. Crossing continents and centuries two para ... Show More
53m 29s
Sep 2023
Neil Blackmore
British author Neil Blackmore’s third novel, ‘The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle’, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize for LGBT+ fiction, while his 2021 novel, ‘The Dangerous Kingdom of Love’, was included in ‘The Times’ list of the best historical fiction. He speaks to Georgina Godwin ... Show More
25m 41s
Jun 2022
Paula Rego Remembered, Cressida Cowell, Elif Shafak, Stones In His Pockets
Artist Paula Rego remembered. Following the sad news today of the death of one of the most important figurative painters of our times, we look back on her life and work with art critic Louisa Buck.Outgoing Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell on why she’s pushing the government to ... Show More
42m 18s