Art History for All

In this episode we delve into the portrait of Don Juan de Calabazas in the Cleveland Museum of Art! Allyson talks jesters, fools, disability history,…

The podcast returns as sharp as ever with a discussion of an example of a Malaysian blade called a kris! Allyson talks about the transition…

Allyson returns refreshed after a quarantine-induced slump to tell you all about Ingapirca, an Inka archaeological site whose function has been obscured by time and…

AH4A is back with an examination of Margaret Preston’s 1958 work Aboriginal Glyph, and lots of thoughts about what it means for a white womanContinue ReadingEpisode 25: Aboriginal Glyph

Lots of food for thought in this episode as Allyson discusses a Shona headrest from Zimbabwe in the Met’s collection: how do such objects comeContinue ReadingEpisode 24: A Place to Rest

In protest of the epidemic of racism and police brutality that affects Black people in America daily, this episode is part of #podcastblackout, a movement…Continue Reading#podcastblackout

AH4A is back with an episode that ROCKS! Allyson discusses the rock art at Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí, Brazil, and what its storyContinue ReadingEpisode 23: Rock Steady

An icon of the head of John the Baptist (c. 1680) from Yaroslavl is the focus of this last episode of 2019, prompting a discussion of how Russia has been viewed across history.Continue ReadingEpisode 22: Gilded Gingerbread

Indigenous Canadian artist Daphne Odjig's painting Bathed in Sunlight (1983) and the larger story of Odjig's career prompt us to think about Native art and how it is (or isn't) included in the mainstream contemporary art world.Continue ReadingEpisode 21: A Paintbrush in Her Hand

It's Halloween 2K19 and Allyson is sharing a very specific type of horror story--art conservation horror stories! Listen in, and then share your own tales of artsy mishaps by emailing allysonh[at]arthistoryforall.com!Continue ReadingIn Focus: Conservation Horror Stories

There are lots of different types of bodies in the world, but artist Fernando Botero focuses on the rounder kind--in this episode, Allyson tells you about Botero's 1998 painting L'Odalisque, and talks about how it relates to body image and ideas of the "other."Continue ReadingEpisode 20: Big Odalisque Energy

Allyson discusses Filipina artist Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s Girls with Baskets (1966), and how colonialism, class, and global politics affect even the most sentimental of art. ©Continue ReadingEpisode 19: The Casco and the Yacht

Allyson discusses Myra Albert Wiggins's The Lacemaker (1899, Portland Museum of Art), workin' hard for the money, and types of labor that we might not see as labor. This one's for you, needleworkers!Continue ReadingEpisode 18: As Much Worker as Woman

Esther Mahlangu's Untitled, 2008 has simple geometry, but a complex context--Allyson talks about its connections to commerce, soccer, and... BMWs? Continue ReadingEpisode 17: First Lady to Travel Over Sea

It's a mind-bending episode as Allyson guides you through Roberto Matta's surreal mental landscape, Invasion of the Night (1941), and explores its connections to physics and psychology.Continue ReadingEpisode 16: Invasion of the Night

Allyson guides you through the eleventh-century Chinese handscroll painting Summer Mountains, (北宋 傳屈鼎 夏山圖 卷) by little-known painter Qu Ding (屈鼎). © 2019 Allyson HealeyContinue ReadingEpisode 15: Compared to Rocks and Mountains

Allyson teaches you all about québécoise painter and stained glass artist Marcelle Ferron, whose windows at the Champ-de-Mars Métro station in Montréal are a uniqueContinue ReadingEpisode 14: Happiness and Color

In this episode, Allyson goes down under and discusses the life of Albert Namatjira, his watercolor painting Catherine Creek, Northern Territory (circa 1950), and theContinue ReadingEpisode 13: Namatjira’s Creek

Théodore Géricault’s 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa is part of a larger tangled web of colonialism, incompetence, and disaster. In this episode we getContinue ReadingEpisode 12: Wrecked

Hagia Sophia has had many lives over the centuries: from church, to mosque, to secular museum, it’s always taken center stage in its city, whetherContinue ReadingEpisode 11: Suspended on a Golden Chain

This episode gets a bit obscure and focuses on a single woodcut from David Cusick’s 1828 book Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, theContinue ReadingEpisode 10: A Sketch of Native American History

We’re getting spooky in this episode and looking at Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting The Nightmare, by far one of the eeriest paintings in Western artContinue ReadingEpisode 9: Fiends, Frankenstein, and Fuseli

This episode is a bit more multidimensional, mainly because we’re talking about a sculpture! Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Malcolm X #3 is titled in memory of Malcolm X, butContinue ReadingEpisode 8: In Memory of Malcolm

The game is afoot as we investigate the theft of Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert–or, more accurately, investigate how that theft affects how we look at theContinue ReadingEpisode 7: Painting of Interest

Get your shutter fingers ready, because in this episode we’re talking about a photograph! Specifically, Laura Aguilar’s Three Eagles Flying (1990). **This podcast contains discussions of lynching,Continue ReadingEpisode 6: Fly Like An Eagle

Brace yourselves, listeners, because in this episode Allyson gets abstract and discusses Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, often hailed as the end of traditional painting and theContinue ReadingEpisode 5: Hip to Be Square

This episode we dip our toe into the Asian art pool and talk about Hokusai’s Great Wave, its origins, and the many many transformations it has undergoneContinue ReadingEpisode 4: Do the Wave

In a very self-indulgent episode, Allyson talks about her favorite period in art history, and one of her favorite artists: Rosalba Carriera, who did aContinue ReadingEpisode 3: In Love with the Rococo

In this episode, Allyson gets topical and talks about a Kehinde Wiley painting–but maybe not the one you think! You can find a transcript ofContinue ReadingEpisode 2: Why Oh Wiley

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Art History for All! In this episode, Allyson tells you all about Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the impact…Continue ReadingEpisode 1: For the Love of Mona Lisa