Next to the Mona Lisa, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring is quite possibly the most famous portrait of all time. The 17th-century painting inspired a movie starring Scarlett Johansson and last year, was the target of climate activists protest, and it’s on view right now as part of the Rijksmuseum’s once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of works by the Dut ... Show More
Jul 23
Re-Air: The Magic of ‘The Artist’s Way’
In this re-air of an episode from last year. Ben Davis speaks with Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist's Way. It is a somewhat unusual subject for us, but it's also been an episode that's been very meaningful to a lot of listeners. And in case you're wondering, Ben started do ... Show More
29m 17s
Jul 16
Welcome to the Society of the Psyop
It is a time of disorienting, sometimes surreal shifts in the worlds of politics and technology. There aren’t too many artists who you might trust as a guide, but Trevor Paglen is one of them. Paglen has long functioned as an artist-researcher, with a fascination for pushing to t ... Show More
47m 9s
Mar 2021
The Sunday Read: 'Rembrandt in the Blood'
<p>It was in the winter of 2016 that Jan Six, a Dutch art dealer based in Amsterdam, made a discovery that would upend his life. He was leafing through a Christie’s<strong> </strong>catalog when he spotted a painting featuring a young man wearing a dazed look, a lace collar and a ... Show More
1h 2m
Oct 2025
'I Am You' fictionalizes the story of a Dutch Golden Age painter and her maid
Dutch Golden Age painter Maria van Oosterwijck and her assistant, Gerta Pieters, lived side by side in 17th century Amsterdam, Pieters having started out as van Oosterwijck’s maid. Victoria Redel’s new historical novel I Am You fictionalizes their story, exploring their personal ... Show More
11m 59s
Mar 2024
The Woman Who Made van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh’s genius was finally recognised 11 years after his death, when, on March 15th, 1901, the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris debuted his first major exhibition. Without the persistence of his sister-in-law, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, it could probably not have happened ... Show More
11m 42s