Reflections: Art, Life and Love

What makes a great partnership? And does that mean it’s good for everyone involved? Patrick Elliot explains the explosive partnership of Robert Macbride and Robert Colquhoun, and to contrast we hear from one of Scotland’s most established contemporary partnerships, Dalziel and Scullion, on how they make it work.

What makes an artistic partnership? Where is it healthy and how can it be destructive? In this episode we find out how powerful partnerships can transcend time and place and cause the people involved to generate some of the most powerful works in history. We’ll hear the tragic tale of Elizabeth Siddall, artist and muse of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and explore the joyful friendship between Picasso and Lee Miller. Artist Julian Bell explains the stormy relationship between Van Gogh and Gaugin and we hear from Dalziel and Scullion on how they work together creativity.

We hear the full interview with Nick Tromans, author of Richard Dadd; The Artist and the Asylum.

Picasso said “the purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls”. So how does art help us communicate with our inner experience and process life events? In this episode we look at how creative work can be a tool to make sense of events or changing times, to share or interrogate emotions and ideas and to communicate experience without words. This episode explores the famous case of Richard Dadd, the visionary Victorian painter and asylum patient, and features interviews with artist Henry Coombes on his work as a therapist, and the charity Artlink on their innovative work.

Professor Jeremy Black explains the nuanced experiences offered by the 18th Century Grand Tour and its impact on British art and culture.

How is it possible to capture another world or time in a canvas, sculpture, photograph or sketchbook? What do these works tell us about how the artist views their own culture? And how does it cause us to reflect on our own? From the art and architecture inspired by the revered remains of Palmyra, to the impact of the 18th Century Grand Tour, we find out how Western aesthetics have evolved, and ask how photography may make the realities of war and faraway cultures tangible. Guests include Professor Jeremy Black from the University of Exeter and Photographer Sophie Gerrard.

Tthe full interview of how journalist Joanna Moorhead uncovered a little-talked about link in her family history, and formed a life-changing friendship with the artist Leonora Carrington.

We discover how women creating art have depicted their identities, bodies and those of other women independent to the male gaze. We find out about Leonora Carrington’s artistic emancipation, touch upon photographer Francesca Woodman’s use of her own body and discover the satirical humour of Sarah Lucas. Then Jenny Saville explains how her understanding of the human figure was transformed by carrying a child.

If politics speaks for people, who speaks for the landscape and nature? Every other week, we feature an extra story from the interviews in our main programme as a bonus episode.Scotland-based partnership Dalziel and Scullion explore art as a conduit between people and nature in this bonus episode. Share this podcast with a friend if it’s started a conversation for you, and subscribe on your podcast player for a new episode every Tuesday. You can tweet using #reflections

The National Galleries of Scotland are developing a new suite of exhibition spaces which will showcase the national collection of Scottish art, right in the heart of Edinburgh so today we hear about some of the ways Scotland, its landscape and identity have been depicted in art. From Romanticism to politics and the problems with biscuit-tin clichés, we’ll hear how reality, sentimentality, politics and money all collide to create an picture of what Scotland is today. Share this podcast with a friend if it’s started a conversation for you, and subscribe on your podcast player for a new episode every Tuesday. You can tweet using #reflections

The photographer can hold power over their subject. So can this power be abused? Each week we feature an extra story from the interviews in our main programme as a bonus episode. Dr Fiona Anderson explores Robert Mapplethorpe's nudes, asking if depictions of risk objectifying the sitter. Share this podcast with a friend if it’s started a conversation for you, and subscribe on your podcast player for a new episode every Tuesday. You can tweet using the hashtag #reflections

How much is a portrait of depiction of the individual also a reflection of the time and society in which it was created? We all have a persona, but how transient is this in relation to who we really are? How you do you make a legacy out of portraiture? And how does your medium reflect a moment in time? In this episode we follow the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe as well as Rembrandt and Cindy Sherman. We’ll also hear from young people undertaking their own exploration of identity in the age of social media, to ask how times and tools have changed. Share this podcast with a friend if it’s started a conversation for you, and subscribe on your podcast player for a new episode every Wednesday. #reflections

Ewen Bremner introduces Reflections: Art, Life and Love, exploring the human experience through great artworks, and the people behind them, created by the National Galleries of Scotland.  How does art reflect the lives and experiences of different people, places and times? How do our experiences and lives reflect art? Thanks to artists, experts, our visitors and those living and working creatively Ewen explores big ideas in our main episodes, as well as six fascinating bonus stories drawn from these interviews.