The Object

When the Moulin Rouge opens in Paris, in 1889—a faux windmill spinning over the entrance, a two-story elephant opening to reveal an orchestra inside—the world is changing quickly. The first film comes out that same day. Electric lights are enlivening the night. The old Victorian morals are being challenged, perhaps nowhere moreso than at this new bohemian cabaret where rich and poor are coming together around the high-kicking can-can and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is the absinthe-drinking artist-in-residence—a flash of freedom and romance that will resonate in the popular imagination long after the moment dissolves in war, crackdowns, and heartbreak.
You can see one of Toulouse-Lautrec's best-known paintings, "At the Moulin Rouge," now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently on view at Mia: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/at-the-moulin-rouge

Lizzi Ginsberg is the Chicago-based writer and researcher who guest-hosted our recent episode on Wanda Gág, the Minnesota-raised artist who went on to fame and some fortune in New York writing and illustrating quirky, beloved books like "Millions of Cats." Here, Ginsberg shares what drew her to Gág and the charming, sometimes tragic story of a woman deliberately both behind and ahead of her time.
You can see some of Gág’s work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Wanda%20Gag

Wanda Gág may be the talented, bob-sporting, fiercely independent, 1920s celebrity cat mom you didn't know you needed right now. Guest host Lizzi Ginsberg looks back at the author and illustrator of “Millions of Cats,” her surprising life and recent revival.
You can see her charmingly inventive prints in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/wanda%20gag
You can read about her current show at the Whitney Museum of American Art here: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/wanda-gags-world

In 1959, a couple of young women from New York find themselves in the Himalayas—an unlikely story of adventure, royal romance, and spiritual awakening that would eventually result in one of the greatest collections of Tibetan Buddhist art in the West. This episode, an experiment in sound and storytelling, explores the incredible convergence of myth and faith, vanished kingdoms and an American princess, and the ancient urge to improve the human experience.
You can see the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, assembled by Alice Kandell and newly installed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/tibetan-buddhist-shrine-room-the-alice-s-kandell-collection
Check out Kandell's photographs of the lost Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, and her friend Hope Cooke, who became its last queen, in the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.30180/

Art and dogs are like our shadows across time: whatever we're up to, whatever values we hold, eventually it all shows up in our art and our dogs. So what can we learn from looking at art about dogs—about our pets and ourselves?
You can see "Your Dog," the giant sculpture mentioned in this episode, in the current exhibition "Domestic Idols" at Mia, and right here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/102644/your-dog-yoshitomo-nara
You can see an example of a Colima dog, one of the wonderfully charismatic clay sculptures of animals made in Mexico nearly 2,000 years ago, here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/5992/dog-colima

Santiago Rusiñol is a newly married heir to a Barcelona textile fortune when he decides to become an artist in Paris instead, in the 1880s, influencing Picasso and inventing a new vocabulary for modern art. But when he comes across an idyllic seaside village, back in Spain, his quest for meaning becomes a question: what are we running from? Can we be satisfied with what already exists?
You can see one of Rusiñol's stunning patio pictures, recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, now through the end of the month in the museum's lobby.

The daughter of a struggling artist, Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun wins the hearts of the French aristocracy—including Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI—with her sensitive portraits. But it's their heads she should be worried about, and when the Revolution hits she has to make a difficult choice. A remarkable story of freedom, and the lengths we'll go to keep it.
You can see her work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2570/portrait-of-countess-maria-theresia-bucquoi-elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun

In the 1930s, Grant Wood is one of the most famous people in America, the artist behind "American Gothic"—the painting of the man, the woman, and the pitchfork, standing outside their house. An artwork so celebrated and so curious it’s called the “modern Mona Lisa.” But as times change and jealousy spreads, Wood suddenly finds himself fighting for his life and livelihood, protecting a secret he hid almost everywhere but in his achingly quirky, art.
You can see Wood’s curious, nostalgic style in "The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2805/the-birthplace-of-herbert-hoover-grant-wood
Some see a self-portrait in "Sentimental Yearner," a drawing made for Sinclair Lewis’s "Main Street": https://collections.artsmia.org/art/22510/sentimental-yearner-grant-wood

On the 90th anniversary of the groundbreaking Tatra automobile, we bring you this encore episode from The Object's first season. A story of the last major war in Europe, when nothing seemed capable of slowing the Third Reich—except, the legend goes, the very fast, very unusual Tatra car from Czechoslovakia. A poignant tale of poetic justice, grace in wartime, and the utopian future that wasn't. You can see a Tatra T87 in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/98653/tatra-t87-four-door-sedan-hans-ledwinka

People have always imagined dragons among them. But they have always imagined them very differently: helping or hurting, making rain or breathing fire. The difference, of course, is us. A brief, beastly history of the creature we can't live with—or without.
You can see many manifestations of dragons, Asian and European, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/dragon
You'll find an example of the tiny gilt bronze dragons used in the "tossing dragons" ritual mentioned in this episode here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/12028/dragon-china