Art History for All cover

Art History for All

Allyson Healey

From art lovers to art haters to art-is-just-okay-ers, Art History for All aims to get all kinds of people thinking about art and what it means to them. Each episode, Allyson Healey tackles a single work of art and its history and larger significance, always asking the question: so what? Art History for All takes you beyond the art historical canon and helps you find the way in which art speaks to you (even if it's never spoken to you before)

From art lovers to art haters to art-is-just-okay-ers, Art History for All aims to get all kinds of people thinking about art and what it means to them. Each episode, Allyson Healey tackles a single work of art and its history and larger significance, always asking the question: so what? Art History for All takes you beyond the art historical canon and helps you find the way in which art speaks to you (even if it's never spoken to you before)

Episode 28: No Foolin’

0:00 0:00

Epizode

Episode 28: No Foolin’ 02 Nov 2021

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,…

Episode 27: The Incredible Flying Kris 09 Aug 2021

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…

Episode 26: The Case of Ingapirca 22 Feb 2021

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…

Episode 25: Aboriginal Glyph 31 Aug 2020

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 woman…

Episode 24: A Place to Rest 08 Jun 2020

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 come…

#podcastblackout 01 Jun 2020

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…

Episode 23: Rock Steady 09 Mar 2020

AH4A is back with an episode that ROCKS! Allyson discusses the rock art at Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí, Brazil, and what its story…

Episode 22: Gilded Gingerbread 24 Dec 2019

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.

Episode 21: A Paintbrush in Her Hand 25 Nov 2019

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.

In Focus: Conservation Horror Stories 31 Oct 2019

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!

Episode 20: Big Odalisque Energy 28 Oct 2019

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."

Episode 19: The Casco and the Yacht 01 Oct 2019

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. ©…

Episode 18: As Much Worker as Woman 26 Aug 2019

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!

Episode 17: First Lady to Travel Over Sea 25 Jun 2019

Esther Mahlangu's Untitled, 2008 has simple geometry, but a complex context--Allyson talks about its connections to commerce, soccer, and... BMWs?

Episode 16: Invasion of the Night 27 May 2019

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.

Episode 15: Compared to Rocks and Mountains 29 Apr 2019

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 Healey…

Episode 14: Happiness and Color 26 Mar 2019

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 unique…

Episode 13: Namatjira’s Creek 28 Feb 2019

In this episode, Allyson goes down under and discusses the life of Albert Namatjira, his watercolor painting Catherine Creek, Northern Territory (circa 1950), and the…

Episode 12: Wrecked 29 Jan 2019

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 get…

Episode 11: Suspended on a Golden Chain 24 Dec 2018

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, whether…

Episode 10: A Sketch of Native American History 26 Nov 2018

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, the…

Episode 9: Fiends, Frankenstein, and Fuseli 29 Oct 2018

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 art…

Episode 8: In Memory of Malcolm 24 Sep 2018

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, but…

Episode 7: Painting of Interest 27 Aug 2018

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 the…

Episode 6: Fly Like An Eagle 30 Jul 2018

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,…

Episode 5: Hip to Be Square 21 Jun 2018

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 the…

Episode 4: Do the Wave 19 May 2018

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 undergone…

Episode 3: In Love with the Rococo 15 Apr 2018

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 a…

Episode 2: Why Oh Wiley 14 Mar 2018

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 of…

Episode 1: For the Love of Mona Lisa 13 Feb 2018

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…