PORTRAITS
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Art, biography, history and identity collide in this podcast from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Join Director Kim Sajet as she chats with artists, historians, and thought leaders about the big and small ways that portraits shape our world.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Description:
Art, biography, history and identity collide in this podcast from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Join Director Kim Sajet as she chats with artists, historians, and thought leaders about the big and small ways that portraits shape our world.
Language:
English
Contact:
(202) 633-8556
Website:
https://npg.si.edu/podcasts
Episodes
Hags and Witches
4/9/2024
Kiki Smith says she didn’t really start making drawings of people until she was 40. Once she had aged a little, she looked in the mirror and saw lines— something “to hang onto” as an artist. At 70, she says it’s the hags and witches who attract her most.
In this episode, Kim speaks with Kiki about portraying older women’s bodies and how aging has influenced her work. Kiki’s female subjects sometimes evoke biblical figures or characters from fairy tales, and they’re often connected to nature— to wolves and birds and stars. “Society is always trying to shrink people’s sense of self or possibilities,” she says. “How they experience the world is much larger.”
This episode was inspired by a self-portrait of Alice Neel, who painted herself at her easel, naked, when she was 80 years old.
See the portraits we discussed:
Alice Neel self-portrait
Cradling Dead Cat (1999-2000), by Kiki Smith
Poisoned Witch (2012), by Kiki Smith
Free Fall, by Kiki Smith
Duration:00:21:59
From The Vault: The Woman Who Knocked Science Sideways
3/26/2024
We didn’t want to let Women’s History Month pass without a tip of the hat to one of the towering figures we’ve featured here on PORTRAITS.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu was a rockstar experimental physicist who worked with Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project. She also met the pope, and inspired a Chinese opera. But here in the United States, she didn’t always get the recognition she deserved. At least not until her granddaughter, Jada Yuan, took up her story. This episode originally aired in 2022.
See the portraits we discuss:
Dr. Wu in the lab
Tsung-Dao Lee, Nobel Laureate
Chen-Ning Yang, Nobel Laureate
Dr. Wu on the forever stamp
Also, check out Jada Yuan’s article about her grandmother here!
Duration:00:27:36
Brilliant Exiles
3/12/2024
Paris in the early 1900s was a magnet for convention-defying American women. It offered a delicious taste of freedom, which they used to explode the gender norms of their day, and to explore new kinds of art, literature, dance and design. In the process, they became arbiters of modernism.
This episode, we raise the curtain on the National Portrait Gallery’s “Brilliant Exiles” exhibition with curator Robyn Asleson. It features 60 trailblazing women, including the dancer, singer and spy Josephine Baker, and the bookshop owner Sylvia Beach, who took a chance on James Joyce. Also in the lineup: Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith, whose bustling nightclub became a hub for American jazz musicians, and Romaine Brooks, the painter who reinvented herself, and then reinvented herself again.
The exhibition runs from April 26, 2024, to February 23, 2025.
See the portraits we discussed:
Ada “Bricktop” Smith, by Carl Van Vechten
Josephine Baker, by Stanislaus Julian Walery
Gertrude Stein, by Pablo Picasso
Sylvia Beach, by Paul-Émile Bécat
Romaine Brooks, self-portrait
Duration:00:27:29
Mall Art
2/27/2024
The National Mall is a great canvas, in part because of all the history embedded there. It’s been a place of protest, celebration and mourning. It also hosts some spectacular monuments. But critic Salamishah Tillet says there is a lot of history missing from the Mall as a commemorative space, like desegregation and the displacement of Indigenous people.
Kim speaks with Salamishah about the ‘Beyond Granite’ exhibition she co-curated on the Mall, and also with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the artist who created the largest portrait ever to go on display there. It was a six-acre composite portrait of several anonymous young men who had one thing in common: They all identified themselves as Americans.
See the artwork we discussed:
Out Of Many, One, by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada
Of Thee We Sing, by vanessa german
The Soil You See…, by Wendy Red Star
America’s Playground: DC, by Derrick Adams
Duration:00:24:48
Lincoln Hiding In Plain Sight
2/13/2024
A globe turned to Haiti. A glove on the ground. A life-size portrait of President Abraham Lincoln contains intriguing details that can be read as a freeze-frame of race relations at the time of his assassination. It also may be the most lifelike depiction of the 16th president— standing to his full height and in full color.
The oil painting by W.F.K. Travers was ‘hidden in plain sight’ for decades at a municipal building in New Jersey. Biographer Ted Widmer played a role in re-discovering the portrait and he speaks with Kim about its place in history.
Travers’ Lincoln is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery, on loan from the Hartley Dodge Foundation, and courtesy of the citizens of the Borough of Madison, New Jersey.
See the portrait here.
Duration:00:24:04
Social Media And The Subway
1/30/2024
There are not many portrait artists who get recognized on the street, but it happens to Devon Rodriguez all the time.
After quietly honing his skill for a decade, Devon started posting videos of his live drawings of New York City subway commuters to social media. The videos took off, earning him some 50 million followers and placing portraiture in front of a huge new audience.
Kim speaks with Devon about the mentors who had his back, and this new model for showing art— not in museums, but on screens.
See the portraits we discussed:
Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez
John Ahearn, by Devon Rodriguez
“The Rodriguez Twins,” by John Ahearn
María Elena Estrada, by Devon Rodriguez
Devon Rodriguez draws Kim Sajet, Instagram
Duration:00:20:37
Copyright vs Copywrong
1/16/2024
Copyright law is complicated, especially when it comes to visual art. So there was a lot of fanfare around the Supreme Court’s May ruling involving a celebrity portrait photographer, the pop artist Andy Warhol, and an orange silk screen of the late musician Prince. Would the decision give us some clarity around what’s ‘infringing’ in the world of appropriation art?
Lauryn Guttenplan, former deputy general counsel for the Smithsonian, walks us through some high-profile copyright cases from the past, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision.
See the artwork we discussed:
Obama “Hope” Portrait by Shepard Fairey, original photo by Mannie Garcia
“Canal Zone” Collage by Richard Prince, original photo by Patrick Cariou
“Orange Prince” by Andy Warhol
Prince Portrait by Lynn Goldsmith
Duration:00:25:34
Bonus: The Toxic Book of Faces
1/2/2024
Silhouettes were a hugely popular and democratic form of portraiture in the 19th century. So an old ledger book full of cut paper profiles at the National Portrait Gallery caught a conservator’s eye. It promised a rare glimpse at people from all different backgrounds who lived in early America. It also held a surprise: It was laced with poison.
Lizzie Peabody, host of the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast, brings us the story of the book, the man who created it, and the web of overlapping stories tucked inside.
See William Bache’s book of silhouettes here.
Duration:00:33:26
Me, Online
12/19/2023
Digital artist Amalia Soto, also known by the username Molly Soda, wants to show us how we portray ourselves, or perform ourselves, online. She says the images and videos we upload don’t necessarily lie, but they do pose questions about the ways we curate our lives for unseen others. She also believes there is a lot we don’t actually control when we hit the ‘post’ button. With Glenn Kaino.
See the artwork we discussed:
Who’s Sorry Now? (2017)
Inbox Full (2012)
My Apology (2022)
Duration:00:20:39
ART-ificial Intelligence
12/5/2023
As AI art gets more and more sophisticated, how do we tell the difference between a portrait that’s created by a human being – with a soul – and art that’s created by a complex algorithm? And if we can’t tell the difference, will artists be out of a job?
Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explains how AI art works, and why he thinks code can actually help artists to expand their creative universe.
But there’s one big question that remains: What does AI art tell us about the inner world of AI itself?
See the portraits we discussed:
Edmond de Belamy, published by Obvious Art
The Next Rembrandt, brainchild of Bas Korsten
Kim Sajet, generated by AI
Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez
You can see Prof. Marcus du Sautoy’s ‘Creativity Code’ lecture here.
Duration:00:23:51
Fakes, the Boxed Wines of the Art World
11/21/2023
That glass of fine wine you’re enjoying so much.. What if you were told it came from a box? Would it taste different?
According to art fraud investigator Colette Loll, yes, it would. Colette draws on brain science to explain why it’s so easy to be duped by a forged masterpiece, and why even the experts get it wrong sometimes.
See the portraits we discuss:
Francis Patrick Garvan, by de Philip de László
Elmyr de Hory, in the style of Philip de László
Duration:00:27:29
Oppenheimer's Close-Up
11/7/2023
The blockbuster Oppenheimer movie focuses on two portrayals of J. Robert Oppenheimer. One is the famous physicist known as the architect of the atomic bomb, and the second is a more vulnerable man, maligned as a communist sympathiser.
Then there’s a third portrait. It makes a cameo in the film and it resides right here at the National Portrait Gallery. Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer Kai Bird, whose book inspired the movie, takes a look with us.
See the portrait we discuss:
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Time magazine cover by Ernest Hamlin Baker
Duration:00:25:14
It Depends How You Frame It
10/24/2023
Museum director Kim Sajet takes listeners to stand in front of a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, the revered commander who led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War. But it’s actually the frame that steals the show.
According to conservator Bill Adair, “The frame gives us information that the painting simply cannot.” In this case, the frame showcases Grant’s major battlefield triumphs. Another, gifted to George Washington by the King of France, tells the story of a political marriage.
Then, Chicana artist Ruth Buentello explains why she frames her portraits in soft, worn fabrics that she scavenges from the linen closet of life.
See the portraits we discuss:
Ulysses S. Grant, by Ole Peter Hansen Balling
King Louis XVI of France, by Charles-Clément Bervic
Gamer Niñas, by Ruth Buentello
Under the Mexican Colchas, Kinship Exhibition, by Ruth Buentello
Duration:00:23:50
Season 5 Trailer: Director's Cut
10/17/2023
Season five kicks off Oct. 24, as director Kim Sajet takes listeners into the National Portrait Gallery to stand in front of some of her favorite artwork.
Duration:00:01:43
A Cover Like No Other
11/1/2022
When Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine, she wanted a cover image that would break completely with the norms of the day. There would be no high-end models and no teasers for makeup tips. Instead, the preview issue featured a goddess with eight arms. And she was blue.
Kim speaks with Gloria and also with the magazine’s first editor, Suzanne Braun Levine, about the ways women had been visually portrayed until their groundbreaking publication hit the newsstands, and how the staff at Ms. worked to turn those stereotypes on their head.
See the portraits we discuss:
Pauline Perlmutter Steinem
Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, 1971
Marilyn Monroe
Student Protest
Susan B. Anthony
Ms. magazine preview cover
Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, 2013
Duration:00:26:12
BONUS: The Case of the Missing Portrait
10/18/2022
Dr. Dorothy Andersen solved a vexing medical mystery by identifying cystic fibrosis. But the mystery of her missing portrait remained unsolved.
This week, we're featuring an episode from the Lost Women of Science podcast about a physician who changed the way we understand acute lung and gastrointestinal problems in small children. But if she was such a medical heavyweight, why did her 1963 portrait disappear from Columbia University's Babies Hospital? The answer tells us something about the perils of memorialization.
Duration:00:30:06
Pinocchio Noses and Plug-In Halos
10/4/2022
Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes says her profession serves as a canary in the coalmine for freedom of expression, a kind of oxygen monitor for democracy itself. When cartoonists are ducking for cover, she says, you'd better watch out. She also shares with Kim why she made the jump from Disney animator to thick-skinned political commentator, through drawing. Then Wendy Wick Reaves, who procured stacks and stacks of political cartoons for the National Portrait Gallery, explains why President Nixon with a Pinocchio nose is indeed a form of portraiture.
Find Ann’s work on Twitter, @AnnTelnaes.
See other images we discuss:
Polly Got A Cracker, by Charles Nelan
Anti-Cartoon Bill Defiance
The Watergate Bug, by Patrick Oliphant
The Credibility Gulf Stream, by Draper Hill
The Gulf Stream, by Winslow Homer
Duration:00:25:40
The Business End Of Portraiture
9/20/2022
Indra Nooyi grew up in a conservative Brahmin household in India, but that didn’t stop her from playing cricket with her brother’s friends, or from joining an all-girl rock band. Years later, when she ascended to the top job at PepsiCo, she would push the boundaries again as one of the few women running a Fortune 500 company.
Nooyi talks to Kim about why she initially shrank from the press when she arrived in the C-suite, and how she wanted to be seen in her own portrait as an American Portrait Gala honoree.
See the portraits we discuss:
Indra Nooyi
Meg Whitman
Anne Catherine Hoof Green
Martha Stewart
Duration:00:22:28
BONUS: Finding Cleopatra
9/6/2022
From our fellow Smithsonian podcast, Sidedoor, the story of Edmonia Lewis— the first sculptor of African American and Native American (Mississauga) descent to achieve international fame. Her 3,000-pound masterwork, “The Death of Cleopatra,” commemorated another powerful woman who broke with convention… and then it disappeared.
See Edmonia Lewis’s portrait here.
Duration:00:27:54
Postal Pairings
8/23/2022
Before cable news and email and Twitter, it was the postal service that transmitted ideas and information across land, sea, and political divides. Kim speaks with National Postal Museum chief curator Dan Piazza about some of the messages that stamps themselves were communicating, including a few asides from Philatelist-in-Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
We also pair some noteworthy stamps to original artwork that lives right here at the National Portrait Gallery.
See the portraits we discuss:
Benjamin Franklin by Duplessis
Franklin’s stamp
Roosevelt and the Little White House
Roosevelt at his desk
Susan B. Anthony, bronze bust
Susan B. Anthony, three cents
Susan B. Anthony, photograph
Susan B. Anthony, fifty cents
Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable
Benjamin Banneker
Duration:00:22:33