
ArtCurious
Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer Dasal
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By:
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Jennifer Dasal
About this listen
A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never heard it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast.
We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed - or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings?
ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.
©2020 Jennifer Dasal (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Lively, accessible, and engaging ... As Dasal observes, ‘art isn’t (always) boring. Sometimes it’s exactly what we need to make our lives more colorful.’ This volume will certainly do that for casual museum-goers, art aficionados, and the just plain curious.” (Booklist)
“A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast.” (Shelf Awareness)
“Dasal reveals in this entertaining survey the weird, wacky, and unbelievable backstories of some of the world’s greatest artists and most famous works of art.... Both art aficionados and novices will find something to appreciate in this offbeat and informative outing.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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The sleeping mind is a mysterious backdrop that science is just beginning to shed light on. It was only some 60 years ago that researchers discovered REM, the rapid-eye-movement cycle that's associated with dreams. In Nightmareland, Lex "Lonehood" Nover travels into the eerie borderlands where the unconscious, dreams, and strange entities intermingle under the cover of night, revealing wider and hidden aspects of ourselves, from the savage and frightening to the astounding and sublime.
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Fascinating
- By Juliana Mayberry on 11-09-19
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Islands of Abandonment
- Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape
- By: Cal Flyn
- Narrated by: Cal Flyn
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula's narrow DMZ.
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Stunningly necessary
- By Mattia on 09-02-21
By: Cal Flyn
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The Knowledge Gap
- The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix it
- By: Natalie Wexler
- Narrated by: Natalie Wexler
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system - one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware.
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Thoughts on The Knowledge Gap
- By cchamberalain on 02-28-20
By: Natalie Wexler
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Journey of the Mind
- How Thinking Emerged from Chaos
- By: Ogi Ogas, Sai Gaddam
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Why do minds exist? How did mud and stone develop into beings that can experience longing, regret, love, and compassion - beings that are aware of their own experience? Until recently, science offered few answers to these existential questions. Journey of the Mind is the first book to offer a unified account of the mind that explains how consciousness, language, the Self, and civilization emerged incrementally out of chaos.
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Consciousness: objectively physical yet subjective
- By Jeffrey W. Rudisel on 04-16-22
By: Ogi Ogas, and others
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Metropolis
- A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention
- By: Ben Wilson
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In a captivating tour of cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious, millennia-spanning story how urban living sparked humankind's greatest innovations.
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Sorry that I can’t rate it higher
- By BCM on 12-28-20
By: Ben Wilson
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Work
- A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
- By: James Suzman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Work defines who we are. It determines our status and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hardwired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are.
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if you like Jared Diamond's work, you'll like this
- By Mark on 04-09-22
By: James Suzman
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The White Devil's Daughters
- The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown
- By: Julia Flynn Siler
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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During the first hundred years of Chinese immigration - from 1848 to 1943 - San Francisco was home to a shockingly extensive underground slave trade in Asian women, who were exploited as prostitutes and indentured servants. In this gripping, necessary book, best-selling author Julia Flynn Siler shines a light on this little-known chapter in our history - and gives us a vivid portrait of the safe house to which enslaved women escaped.
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Well researched
- By Qats reads on 08-05-19
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Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
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Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
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Let the Lord Sort Them
- The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
- By: Maurice Chammah
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: The country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment.
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Very Slanted
- By appreciative reader on 02-07-21
By: Maurice Chammah
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The Code
- Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
- By: Margaret O'Mara
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before Margaret O'Mara became one of our most consequential historians of the American-led digital revolution, she worked in the White House of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the earliest days of the commercial Internet. There, she saw firsthand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government - and always had been - and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley's success actually was.
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Mostly good, but also irrating
- By Rodney on 12-20-20
By: Margaret O'Mara
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The Quiet Americans
- Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - a Tragedy in Three Acts
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Scott Anderson
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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At the end of World War II, the United States was considered the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear—to some—that the Soviet Union was already seeking to expand and foment revolution around the world, and the American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly formed CIA. Chronicling their fascinating lives, Scott Anderson follows the exploits of four spies. Despite their ambitions, time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by ham-fisted politicking and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government.
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A Tragedy for One
- By Amazon Customer on 09-23-20
By: Scott Anderson
What listeners say about ArtCurious
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- Jan Carlson
- 10-05-21
Very odd but I could not stop listening!
Odd indeed a lot of very curious information. This book kept me interested to the end. Not sure I go along with a lot of her positions or facts and I feel that is unimportant to me her, she definitely has a right to her opinions. Some facts I will triple check on my own the book definitely kept me thinking. One thing I will firmly state, a toilet seat is not a piece of art, it is the biggest joke ever played on the art community and no matter who created it they are still laughing. What a wonderful joke on the over educated! Definitely a re-read for me.
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3 people found this helpful
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- M.M.T.R
- 02-23-24
Smarky
Normally I love all things art but I was disappointed in the authors choice of topics and somewhat prejudiced views of art of which sshe did not care. Others may enjoy her choices but I found them to be superficial.
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- Carol Schmidt
- 12-03-20
Didn't make me art curious.
For someone who was trying to invite people to enjoy art, the stories dragged with too many tangents.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Blaise
- 01-10-22
Only interesting for Art History buffs
I purchased this book after our book club decided to read it. This book should probably have stayed as a podcast. I was lost in many of the chapters as I didn't have the base of an art history course. I did enjoy the chapters on Vincent Van Gogh and Andy Warhol. Practically every other chapter had the author waxing over some minutiae such as playing painted musical notes or ways to increase the value of art.
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2 people found this helpful
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- M. Ramirez
- 01-17-24
The Art Gossip
Norman Rockwell was the most surprising part of this book! Felt like I learned much more than anticipated.
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- edward
- 08-01-22
History of Art course was never this fun!
every chapter chock full of ideas to run to your local museum to see what they have…I am on my way!
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2 people found this helpful
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- mspocketqueen
- 02-22-22
I enjoyed it, was entertaining and easy to listen
While I didn't enjoy some of the stories and would have picked others, as well as her tendency to go back and forth between topics within a chapter, I overall enjoyed listening to the book. It was a nice easy listen for my drive to and from work. I will be adding the podcast to my regular roster!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-31-23
Perfect for Podcast Enjoyers!
The author definitely reads (and writes) like an entertainer, and if you love art history, this book covers some niche points in time that are worth learning about.
There’s some true crime, some ✨the more you know✨ moments, some stories around female artist, and even some spooky stories to share with your art friends. The variety is great if you’re looking for something new but don’t know what specifically you’d like to learn about in art history!
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- Lindsay
- 02-22-22
ArtFun
This is how to take art history and make it interesting to everyone. We've got conspiracy theories, murder, fraud, gender, and much more. A fun read that isn't all fluff.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Rosie G.
- 08-03-22
Learned so much!
Exciting, mysterious and fascinating stories surrounding some of the world's greatest art and artists can be found in this book!
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1 person found this helpful