7310: Pieter Bruegel the Elder — The Radical Decision to Paint Ordinary People | pplpod
Pieter Bruegel the Elder chose to paint peasants, children, and village festivals at a time when respectable artists painted gods, saints, and kings. His scenes of everyday life were not folksy decora...
17 Juni 23min
7309: Peter Paul Rubens — The Artist Who Was Also a Diplomat and a Spy | pplpod
Peter Paul Rubens ran the most productive painting workshop in Europe, negotiated peace treaties between warring nations, and gathered intelligence for the Spanish crown — all while producing some of ...
17 Juni 19min
7308: Olivier Messiaen — The Theology of Joy from a Nazi Prison Camp | pplpod
Olivier Messiaen composed the Quartet for the End of Time in a German prisoner-of-war camp and premiered it for four hundred freezing inmates in January 1941. He found joy in birdsong, Catholic theolo...
17 Juni 22min
7307: Norman Mailer — Pulitzer Prizes, Penknives, and the Ego That Consumed American Letters | pplpod
Norman Mailer won two Pulitzer Prizes, ran for mayor of New York, stabbed his wife with a penknife at a party, and spent fifty years picking fights with every writer, critic, and feminist who crossed ...
17 Juni 20min
7306: Neil Young — The Deliberate Crash into the Ditch That Defined a Career | pplpod
Neil Young followed the massive commercial success of Harvest by recording three albums so raw and abrasive that critics called them the "Ditch Trilogy." He drove his career off a cliff on purpose, re...
17 Juni 19min
7305: Mark Rothko — The Seagram Rebellion and the Painter Who Refused to Decorate | pplpod
Mark Rothko accepted a commission to paint murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, then returned the money and kept the paintings. He refused to let his work become wallpaper f...
17 Juni 24min
7304: Marcel Duchamp — The Twenty-Five-Year Magic Trick That Fooled the Art World | pplpod
Marcel Duchamp submitted a urinal to an art exhibition in 1917, signed it "R. Mutt," and called it Fountain. Then he announced he had given up art to play chess. For twenty-five years everyone believe...
17 Juni 21min
7303: Mae West — The Woman Who Turned Censorship into a Fortune | pplpod
Mae West was arrested for obscenity, spent ten days in jail, and used the publicity to become the highest-paid woman in America. She wrote her own scripts, controlled her own image, and turned sexual ...
17 Juni 22min
