The Object

Bonus Episode: Dance Like Everyone’s Watching

It was a mystery: two dancers—one white, one Black—captured on stage in 1959 in a photograph found in a museum archive. Who were they? But a search for their identity uncovers much more: a forgotten history of art and integration. When the pursuit of modern ideals promised a better world, and the pursuit of art promised personal freedom. The farther from the New York spotlight, the better. You can watch Martha Graham's 1959 TV broadcast of "Appalachian Spring" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmgaKGSxQVw And Katherine Dunham's "Ballet Creole" from 1952 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSTuO5E9_1g

Encore episode: Secrets of the Veiled Lady

They are illusions, no more real than someone being sawed in half onstage. Yet the veiled ladies that Raffaelle Monti sculpts in the 1800s are very real to him. Poignant symbols of an identity he’s forced to conceal, even as they make him famous. As we prepare for Season 6, it’s an encore episode that first aired in 2021, a story of pride and prejudice and dreams just out of reach.
Here you can see Monti’s Veiled Lady, c. 1860, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a visitor favorite for more than half a century: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12092/veiled-lady-raffaelo-monti

American Epic: Looking for Ella Watson

In 1942—years before becoming the first Black photographer for Life magazine, the director of Shaft, and a style icon the New York Times will hail as the “godfather of cool”—Gordon Parks is a young, ambitious photographer in Washington, D.C., struggling to document the injustice he’s found in the nation’s capital. Until, one day, he meets Ella Watson. Illustrating her life in photographs changes both of them, putting Parks on the path to fame and Watson in the minds of Americans as the heroic figure in one of the most iconic images of the century—known simply as Government Charwoman.
You can see the best-known photo from this series, American Gothic, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/100557/american-gothic-gordon-parks
You can see more photos from the series here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/fsa-owi-black-and-white-negatives/articles-and-essays/documenting-america/ella-watson-united-states-government-charwoman/

Give and Take: The Weird, Wonderful Art of the Gift

From the gift of fire to Pandora’s Box to the original white elephant, the long history of giving is also the history of receiving—a relationship fraught with desire, dubious intentions, and occasional disaster. It’s a playful journey down a winding chimney: four stories about our need to present each other with presents.
You can see Man Ray’s “Cadeau,” discussed in this episode, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/5343/gift-man-ray And an evocative 1914 take on Pandora’s Box here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55113/pandoras-box-timothy-cole And a rather realistic perspective on the gift-bearing magi: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1785/journey-of-the-magi-james-tissot

Shooting Back: The Photographer Who Unvanished

In the 1890s, B.A. Haldane sets up a photography studio in Alaska and begins documenting the vibrant life of his Tsimshian community—even as non-Native photographers like Edward Curtis are trekking to reservations, documenting what they believe is a "vanishing race.” Quietly contradicting a president and scientists steeped in theories of white supremacy and evolution, Haldane and others offer an alternative vision only now being rediscovered. A story of resistance and resilience and what we miss by seeing only through our own lens.
You can see the photography of Haldane and other Native artists in "In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now," on view at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/in-our-hands-native-photography-1890-to-now
And read more about him in the work of Tsimshian scholar Mique’l Dangeli: https://www2.unbc.ca/sites/default/files/events/45874/public-presentation-miquel-dangeli-re-developing-work-b.a.haldane-19th-century-tsimshian-photography/2018-02-14-miqueldangeli-b.a.haldanephotography.pdf

Goodbye, Columbus: Frida and Diego’s American Dream

In the fall of 1930, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera travel to the United States for the first time, welcomed as celebrity artists, ambassadors of an ancient and powerful Latin American identity. But as the months turn to years, can Rivera’s vision of one united Pan-America--and their young marriage--survive the pressures of politics, fame, temptation, cultural differences, and scandal?
You can see examples of Diego Rivera’s work, and that of other modernist Mexican artists, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/diego%20rivera
You can see Rivera’s San Francisco mural “Pan American Unity,” discussed on the show, here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pan-american-unity/
You can see photos of Frida and Diego taking San Francisco by storm here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco
You can see (and read) Kahlo’s heartfelt letter to Rivera from a San Francisco hospital (“Diego, mi amor”) in the collection of the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/frida-kahlo-letter-diego-rivera%3AAAADCD_item_739
You can read about and see images from the SFMOMA’s excellent recent exhibition “Diego Rivera’s America” here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/diego-riveras-america/
Last and certainly not least, you can read some of the story “Queen of Montgomery Street,” written about Kahlo in San Francisco, also in the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/AAADCD_item_766

Water for Spirits: The Circus Star Who Became a Goddess

An ancient African water spirit, Portuguese slave traders, and a snake charmer traveling with the circus--incredibly, all of their stories collide in a narrative that spans centuries, continents, and the best and worst of human instincts. How do we find resilience among the wreckage? How do we shape the spirit world when this one has failed?
You can see the Mami Wata figure discussed in this episode in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/111879/mami-wata-figure-igbo

Finding Fanny: The Model Who Disappeared

She was one of the most recognizable women in the world, her long copper hair filling painting after painting, even if few people knew her name: Cornforth. Model, muse, and mistress to the most influential artists of the Victorian era, she still had to fight for everything she got. Until, in the end, she lost the one thing she could count on for sure: herself.
You can see in this 1868 painting, "I know a maiden fair to see," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/83645/i-know-a-maiden-fair-to-see-charles-edward-perugini
You can see the photograph mentioned in this episode--of , posing beside a mirror--here: http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/sa223.rap.html

Making Monet: The Invention of Genius

He rose from scorn and poverty to become one of the most beloved and wealthy artists in history—the original rebel with a cause, dedicated to showing the world a new way of seeing. But what if Claude Monet's real cause was...Claude Monet? What if his rise was fueled by marketing, myth, and money? Can we still love him anyway?

Dangerous Liaisons: What Happened to the First Art Star?

Simeon Solomon—bold, dashing, and openly —is a rising star in the Victorian art world when a scandal in 1873 supposedly forces him into obscurity, a cautionary tale for fans like Oscar Wilde. But the truth is more complicated and only now coming to light, revealing the fate of this forgotten figure as both more tragic and more inspiring.
You can see an “allegorical self-portrait” here, from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1686/allegorical-self-portrait-simeon-solomon
You can see his haunting masterwork “Love in Autumn” here: https://arthive.com/artists/1557~Simeon_Solomon/works/9454~Love_in_autumn