The Object

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

Bonus episode: When a Kiss is Just a Kiss

In 1950, Robert Doisneau takes one of the most iconic photographs of Paris—a young couple kissing on the street—that eventually becomes a global symbol of romance, spontaneity, joie de vivre. But the real story is only now coming to light, a story about the world as it is and the world as we wish it to be.
You can see the photograph in question here, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but be sure to listen before you buy a ticket to Paris: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/11815/le-baiser-du-trottoir-robert-doisneau

Do You Feel Lucky? A Bonus Episode for the New Year

Many people dream of finding a masterpiece in the attic, a closet, or a thrift store. In 2007, it happened to a church in a small town, and the story behind the painting is just as curious. It's a special bonus episode to start the new year with good vibes and a question: do you feel lucky? What would you do? Maybe you should listen to find out.
You can see the painting mentioned in this episode, "Christus Consolator," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/104894/christus-consolator-ary-scheffer

A Christmas Fable: The Sinner and the Saint

In 1650, a less-than-holy artist is hired to paint a religious mystery even the pope isn't totally sure about. It's just one part of the Church's plan to counter its enemies with guns, inquisitions, and art, but the mystery—and the artist—will become increasingly popular as a new world threatens to end the old.
You can see the grand artwork mentioned in the show here, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1613/the-immaculate-conception-with-saints-francis-of-assisi-and-anthony-of-padua-giovanni-benedetto-castiglione

Photographer of Fortune: The Man Who Shot America

In the mid-1960s, Richard Avedon is the most famous photographer in the world, redefining fashion and celebrity while becoming an icon himself. But as America is shaken by the war in Vietnam and racial strife, he struggles to reinvent himself as a serious artist, showing the country as it is—not as it pretends to be.
You can see more than a dozen of Avedon's most famous photographs, including his portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Dovima with elephants, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Richard%20Avedon
You can see images of his groundbreaking 1970 show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://www.avedonfoundation.org/minneapolis-institute-of-arts-mn-1970-richard-avedon
And images of Avedon's very 1960s fashion shoot with Angelica Huston in Ireland here: https://lineargrey.wordpress.com/portfolio/when-anjelica-met-avedon/

Ghost Ships Of Xu Fu

In ancient China, a royal sorcerer named Xu Fu is sent with some 60 ships to find the elixir of immortality. But on the second voyage, he and his crew of thousands disappear. Possibly to Japan, legend suggests, where Xu Fu becomes the first emperor. Now, as a Hmong artist explains, one clue to their fate may lie with his people’s own legendary history.
You can see the entire 50-painting series of “The Hmong Migration” by Cy Thao, mentioned in this episode, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, including the painting depicting Xu Fu’s voyage:
https://collections.artsmia.org/art/89559/5-cy-thao

Lost and Found: The Possibly True Story of America’s First Black Artist

In 1798, a portrait artist named Joshua Johnson advertises himself as a “self-taught genius.” A few decades later, he will nearly be forgotten. It’s a mystery only now being revealed: the unlikely story of the man sometimes called America’s first Black professional artist. A story of slavery and freedom, racism and redemption, nearly lost to history.
You can see Johnson's "Portrait of Richard John ," c. 1817, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/106096/portrait-of-richard-john-joshua-johnson