What is the Value of Art?

Last updated on November 22nd, 2019

There is a new trend of making TV shows out of Podcasts, but I’m strictly a pod fan, so instead I’m going to turn it around and recommend episodes based loosely on a documentary. This weekend I finally got around to watching “The Price of Everything” on HBO, and I can’t get enough about the world of Art. For the next few weeks I’m going to bring you a list of a few hours of the best unknown podcasts for art lovers and newbies alike.

First I’m focusing on what we think of as Art, and I’m painting with a broad brush (pun intended). An interview with an Art critic featured in the HBO doc, a current look at the Bard, deep dives into a few famous artists, and an older episode that helped me frame my feelings on art that I found crucial. The question to keep in mind comes from the documentary: What is the value of art?

Longform Podcast – Jerry Saltz

I do not like interview shows but I do like the Longform podcast, while not an art podcast, it contains the best audio interviews not conducted by St. Terry Gross. The hosts are inquisitive and knowledgeable and let the subjects come alive discussing their work, it’s about craft, not biography. I chose this episode because Jerry Saltz is perfect for the Longform Podcast. Having an art critic with his energy and sincere love of his craft gives this episode a particular sort of magic. Saltz is a failed artist who has written his way into being a leading voice in the critique world and has a lot to say about art. He’s as rambunctious in this interview as he was in the aforementioned HBO Documentary, and I came away with the strong desire to open an art gallery in my own town.

Lend Me Your Ears – King Lear

Aside from having a no-line role in my high school’s production of “The Taming of the Shrew”, I have very little exposure to Shakespeare. It’s something I regret since it finds its way into pop culture so frequently. In the HBO documentary, casual references to the Bard appear to be a matter of course in typical conversation. To remedy this I didn’t want to spend time actually reading the plays, and luckily Slate’s makes great shows, and this art podcast can help me out. Major themes and their contemporary context, and how they might be received today are the main topics of this show. In particular the role of Women in society during roughly Shakespeare’s time is compared to today and… I’m left wondering what value these plays still have. It’s still Shakespeare-adjacent, so this episode is on the dense side of things, but the host is so knowledgeable at the end I felt as though I had completed a deep read.

The Lonely Palette – Edward Hopper’s Room in Brooklyn

This art podcast and the next in the list are both hosted by art historians, but The Lonely Palette has a more documentary flair. I chose this particular episode because the painting examined is from the middle of the 20th century, but there are episodes from many other artistic movements to choose from. Not to be too pretentious here, but like with drinking wine, if you don’t know what to look for in a painting you’ll never find it and the host is a guide to gazing at this one painting. She also provides an excellent historical context. Obviously it’s an audio medium so I recommend pulling up this painting and others by Hopper and his contemporaries while listening to really immerse in the experience.

The Art History Babes – Vinny Van Gogh

There are two types of podcasts: Audio Documentaries and Conversations. The Lonely Palette episode represents the former so I wanted to include something that is very much the latter. You can expect current takes on art from decades or centuries ago, from art historian hosts’ perspective, resulting in more of a fun conversation than a lecture. In this episode in particular they explore the common notion that artists must be tortured or somehow flawed mentally in order to produce transcendent work. Van Gogh famously struggled with depression and mental illness, and somehow the Netflix Standup special Nannette is brought into the conversation of the late 19th Century Dutch master.

Philosophize this – David Hume – Art

Philosophize This is one of my favorite lesser-known podcasts and I can’t recommend enough listening from the very beginning. In my utopia, education would be delivered via podcasts that span years and can be consumed at one’s own pace, and this show is the only model I’ve found (please send me more!). For our purposes however, this particular episode asks and attempts to answer the question “What makes art good?”. I can’t pretend to know the answer after listening but the basics of being a critic according to the Scottish Philosopher David Hume seem to be a good place to start. I’m in my mid (actually late, but I’m in denial) 20s and I find these rules of critique apply to most aspects of life.