Advertising & Artemisia

New Generation Thinker Catherine Fletcher and Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones join Rana Mitter to discuss how women's stories have shaped art and advertising from the baroque painter Artemesia Gentileschi to the suffragettes promoting boot polish in 20th-century England. And against the backdrop of the Me Too movement, Rana hears how the best-selling novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 became a rallying cry for young women in south Korea.

Catherine Fletcher's new book about the Italian Renaissance peels back the glittering art of the period to discover the political and military turmoil beneath while Jonathan Jones tells the story of Artemesia Gentileschi who channeled the trauma of her rape at 17 into a body of powerful and challenging work. Cho Nam-Joo's novel, translated by Jamie Chang, raises questions about misogyny and discrimination in today's Korea.

Rana visits the Art of Advertising exhibition at the Bodleian Library with curator Julie-Ann Lambert and Selina Todd, professor of modern history at Oxford University, where he explores how female buying power and social mobility transformed the consumer market.

Catherine Fletcher's book is called The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance. Jonathan Jones has written a biography called Artemisia Gentileschi (Lives of the Artists). An exhibition of her work runs at the National Gallery in London from 4th April to 26th July. The Art of Advertising runs at the Bodleian Library in Oxford until August 31st. Admission is free. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo is translated by Jamie Chang. Selina Todd's books include The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, and Tastes of Honey: the making of Shelagh Delaney and a cultural revolution.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to put academic research on the radio. You can find a collection of programmes and podcasts on the Free Thinking programme website called New Research https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Also in the archives you can download a Free Thinking Landmark on The Prince with Catherine Fletcher with Sarah Dunant, Gisela Stuart and Erica Benner debating Machiavelli's ideas https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h0l9j and Breaking Free - Martin Luther’s Revolution is debated by Peter Stanford, Ulinka Rublack and Diarmaid MacCulloch hosted by Anne McElvoy at LSE https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nf02y

Producer: Paula McGinley