The Object

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 : 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

How to Break the World

Truth, beauty, transcendence. For millennia, people think they know the rules of great art. Then, in the 1950s, a guy named Bob breaks every one of them, declaring car tires and Coke bottles and entirely blank canvases part of his art--and, in turn, being declared the greatest artist of his time. As war gives way to optimism, is Robert Rauschenberg offering a weary world a new way of seeing, or is he simply, entertainingly, lucratively bamboozling it?
Here, you can see Rauschenberg's 1970 exhibition at Gallery 12, atop Dayton's department store in Minneapolis: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archive/currents-daytons-gallery-12
Here's an iconic print, commissioned but ultimately rejected by Time magazine in 1969, acquired the following year by the Minneapolis Institute of Art when the museum held a major retrospective of his prints: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7519/signs-robert-rauschenberg
And here's a boat hauling Rauschenberg's work across Venice for the 1964 Biennale: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archive/32nd-venice-biennale

Revealing History: The Naked and the Nude

As long as humans have made art, they have made art of naked humans. But why? From Greek gods romping in the buff to saints au naturel to modern “bathing beauties,” it’s the surprising story of a phenomenon as misunderstood as it is ubiquitous.
You can see one of Matisse's reclining nudes, mentioned in this episode and a great ab workout, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1888/large-seated-nude-henri-matisse
And a photo of the real thing in studio here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/4502/henri-matisse-brassai
The scandalous Caillebotte nude on a couch here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Caillebotte
One of many Saint Sebastians here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/47994/saint-sebastian-martin-schongauer
And last but certainly not least, Dürer's winking image of men at the bath: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Durer%20bath

Breaking Good: The Department of Missing Limbs

The first episode of Season 5 is 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? 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: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1280/the-tiber-muse-graeco-roman
A Graeco-Roman torso: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/8483/torso-graeco-roman
An ancient Egyptian figure: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1346/striding-figure-ancient-egyptian
And the Venus de Milo: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010277627

Encore episode: The Black Musketeer: A Swashbuckling Tale of Race and Revenge

Season 5 of The Object begins Monday, March 6! Until then, enjoy this encore presentation of "The Black Musketeer," first broadcast in May 2022. The man behind "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" was one of the richest, most popular authors in the world—an adventurous celebrity who could fight as well as write. But many of Alexandre Dumas’ readers today don’t know that he was Black—or that his best story may have been his own.
A portrait of Alexandre Dumas, widely reproduced in his day, was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art:
collections.artsmia.org/art/142671/po…eugene-giraud
Another portrait of Dumas in Mia’s collection—younger, dashing, looking a little like Prince: collections.artsmia.org/art/54426/por…hille-deveria