Just Another American Fable: Grant Wood

What did “free speech” mean before the Civil War...and what did it cost? Today, I'm exploring how Americans have debated the meaning of liberty through words, images, and even violence beginning with Samuel Jennings’s 1792 painting 'Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences' in 17 ...  Show more

In the final installment of our Impressionism primer, we meet the artists who broke away from light and surface to paint something deeper. From Van Gogh’s turbulent skies to Gauguin’s mythic Tahitian scenes, Cézanne’s geometric still lifes to Seurat’s scientific dots, the Post-Im ...  Show more

English-born artist Thomas Cole emigrated to the United States in 1818. Six years later he began what is now known as the Hudson River School, which became the first art movement of the United States.. Betsy Jacks, director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, tells Don ...

It's the early nineteenth century, and the moon is bright, the Hudson Valley forests are full of shadows, and a lonely schoolteacher heads home on his rickety horse. All those stories he's heard about a headless horseman are just stuff and nonsense...aren't they? In this episode, ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, author, Andrew Thompson shares another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the English language. tells us about the museum in Somerville, Massachusetts with a collection of over 600 examples of b ...  Show more

In this episode of Accessible Art History: The Podcast, I'm discussing the Portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent.