email 4: no reading required

<![CDATA[<p>hiiiiiii! for this edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail, i’m doing something slightly different. i have been really busy lately, and my attention span isn’t what it should be, so reading has been a challenge. instead, i have been listening to more podcasts while doing dishes, making breakfast, etc. it is kind of hard to find art-related podcasts that qualify as the kind of “easy listening” i have been craving lately, but i have put together a few that really hit the spot – hope you like them!</p>

BOMB magazine has a podcast called fuse, and I really enjoyed their latest episode in which writer maggie nelson interviews painter tala madani. i haven't read maggie nelson's recent book, "on freedom," but this made me curious. i have read mixed reviews... anyone out there checked it out yet? also take a listen to this episode if you, like me, love john wilson of the docu-show "how to with john wilson"

i really enjoy mary reid kelley and patrick kelley's crazy historical videos, and i also enjoy the gentle vibes of the modern art notes podcast. the two join forces in this very lovely episode! the work they are discussing is based on a titian painting, "the rape of europa," which is at boston's isabella stewart gardner museum. i was so in love with that place as a kid, and i appreciate hearing a critical take on a big-deal painting of a cringey mythological subject that i'm guessing i must have seen at a young age? also the second half of the episode is a really interesting interview about the national monument audit, which, like the kelleys' videos, also reveals something about the violence of visual histories, albeit using a different approach.

the podcast produced by canadian art magazine momus is also pretty great, and i was especially excited about this episode with dana kopel about her unionization efforts at the new museum in new york. dana wrote a long but riveting essay about this experience for the baffler magazine, and momus' interview with her is a good primer on the kinds of problems that are prevalent in even "progressive" arts institutions like the new museum. thanks to people like dana, social media campaigns like @changethemuseum, and organizations like WAGE, things may be headed in a better direction. solidarity forever!!!

this show is kind of dorky, but sometimes this npr-core style is comforting in a weird way. the reason this three part series is here is that it actually does a great job of offering an introductory look at the different ways the art market operates. this is the kind of thing that i don't think is EVER taught in art school (someone correct me if i'm wrong) and i wish it was, because it's always so depressing to find this stuff out in bits and pieces through experience. i don't agree with everyone they talk to here, but they talk to a ton of people and cover everything from museum collections to gallery sales to nfts (barf). until this show, i wasn't even sure david zwirner was a real guy! episode 1, episode 2, episode 3

that's all. i hope all this listening material helps somebody else get through their own mindless chores this winter! let me know if you have any good podcasts i should check out or videos or articles or whatever : )

martha