Art Slice - A Palatable Serving of Art History

We are back with another edition of our CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE where we discuss TWO different artworks by TWO different artists and compare what makes them so terrifying!

Video version ⟶ https://youtu.be/NpOsfts4sgU

Usually, we are able to squeeze them into one episode but not this time!

And we kick off our 2025 CDF edition with illustrator, painter, and stained glasser Harry Clarke (1889-1931).

Harry hailed from Dublin, Ireland and grew up during the Celtic Revival.

Harry was just as popular for his book illustrations during the Golden Age of gift-books as well as his other-wordly religious stained glass in churches.

While his masterpiece is the Geneva Window, a breathtaking example of Harry’s skill and mastery of stained glass, we will be focusing on an illustration from the book of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe (1919, 1923).

Yes, horror-ific Edgar. Allan.Poe. 

The work in question is that of “King Pest” from 1919, a story about two drunken sailors bumbling about a 19th century plague-stricken London.

Sounds chill but the combo of grim and gory Poe plus Harry’s scary talent of visualizing such tales will give you the heebie-jeebies (not all speaking from experience 👀).

Click PLAY if you dare and get ready to be HARRY-FIED!

Topics include E-Girl socks, El Chavo del Ocho, island getaways, pampooties, Derry Girls, Guinness, TB vaccines and much, much more!

Song: "Yesterday" by Holiznacc0 https://holiznacc0.bandcamp.com/track/yesterday

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Listeners, we are excited to share a very special interview with Orna Tsultem, curator and art historian of Mongolian art, where we dive into the origins of Mongol Zurag, the art of resistance.

We cover A LOT of images in this one so we highly recommend watching when you have the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QchXwHybmfk&ab_channel=ArtSlicePod

You can also follow along here: https://www.artslicepod.com/episodes/mongol-zurag-art-of-resistance

In this episode, we discuss the origins of Mongol Zurag which began as benign secular painting, which was a significant change from the traditional Buddhist thangka paintings.

After Mongolia became a Soviet satellite state, Mongol Zurag, slowly but surely, became the voice of resistance from Mongolian artists looking to rediscover their cultural heritage.

The Mongol Zurag style continues today and the Mongolian artists’ message which most of us can relate to in the year 2025 living under neo-liberalism and capital greed.

You can learn more about Mongolian Art here:

https://www.artmongolia.org/

MUSIC:

Yesterday Album - Lofi And Chill Artist - HoliznaCC0 https://holiznacc0.bandcamp.com/album...

01 Album - 2013

Toyota Corolla Artist - 2003 Toyota Corolla https://hanahata.bandcamp.com/album/2...

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To watch ➬ mosey on over here ➬ : https://youtu.be/3H3ittr_RNY

We present a very special bonus interview with Emily A. Beeny, Chief Curator at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco about the Mary Cassatt At Work exhibition.

Since her day, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) has been known for her paintings of bébés and upper class women but there’s another layer - a radical one - that has been overlooked until now.

Join us as we discuss how this new exhibition explores the idea of labor surrounding Cassatt’s studio practice as well as her radical subject matter: the bébés being cared for by, more often than not, nannies, nurse-maids, governesses etc. 

Our conversation with Emily revolves around Cassatt's “A Goodnight Hug” a pastel from 1880.

Topics include the artist as laborer, shedding light on domestic work, her and Cassatt’s involvement in women’s suffrage in the US.

The exhibition closes January 26th, 2025 - don’t miss it!!

You can learn more about the exhibition here:

https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/mary-cassatt

MUSIC: HoliznaCC0 - “First Snow” 

https://holiznacc0.bandcamp.com/

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WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION HERE (and if you do please like, subscribe, and comment - we are trying to get our videos some traction): https://youtu.be/vQZ0yMxdfuE

¡ ¡ W E ‘ R E B A C K, Y ’ A L L ! !

This time getting lost in the weird and wonderful world of painter, photographer and printmaker Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s early works (Part 1) that feature wonky landscapes populated by dream logic, lumpy babies, curvaceous women, angular farm animals, and Japanese folk tales as well as American folk influences.

Yas’ early works became an amalgamation of his lifelong journey of self-identity, expertly blending sentimental past memories, like that of Japanese folktale Momotaro, with present feelings of fear and isolation due to the growing racism and tension he was experiencing on the daily.

As an Asian American immigrant, and like many other Nikkei, Yas found himself trapped somewhere in the middle - considered neither Japanese nor American enough - as relations between the US and Japan escalated. 

We discuss “Little Joe with Cow” 1923, “Bad Dream” 1924, and “Self-Portrait as Golf Player” 1927. 

Topics include shedding your husk, Weezer dance-a-thons, dual cup-holder LaZ boys, censoring comics and mermaids . . . and so much more!!

Music:

"A flower blooms in complete darkness"

From the album: "Visions, Prophecies, and Night Terrors" by The Hathaway Family Plot

Check out the album on Spotify or Bandcamp

https://thehathawayfamilyplot.bandcamp.com/album/visions-prophecies-and-night-terrors

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Watch the video version here (if you do - please like, subscribe, and comment as we are trying to get our videos more recognition): https://youtu.be/YN-jTDR2spY

¡ ¡ W E ‘ R E B A C K, Y ’ A L L ! !

and diving into the origins of La Catrina, the quintessential skelicon of Day of the Dead. Over the past 100ish years, her image has transcended borders, becoming synonymous with sugar skulls, Frida Kahlo, the Virgin of Guadalupe and even Santa Muerte.

From her first incarnation by Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1910 as “Calavera Garbancera” (Chick-Pea Calavera) print, all the way back to early depictions of (and actual) skulls found in Aztec and Mayan tzompantli; Her rediscovery and re-imagining by the Mexican Muralists in the early 20th century, even making a cameo in the larger than life mural by Diego Rivera in 1947 “Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central” or “A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park” and finally, the continuing rise of La Catrina’s visage in the present day.

We also discuss Europe’s Memento Mori moment in Hans Holbein the Younger’s “The Ambassadors” from 1533 as well as Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos influence on Posada’s “Calavera de los Patinadores” or “Street-cleaning Calavera” from c.1900 and “Calavera Oaxaqueña” or “The Oaxacan Calavera” c.1910.

Topics include renegade saints, is Tim McCraw dead?, hybrid deities, Franceyness, psychedelic skulls, really just lots and lots and lots of skulls . . .

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