Once upon a time, ferries were the only way to travel between New York’s five boroughs but thanks to the construction of major bridges, like the Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge, the city became connected. Join Michael for a closer look at how five bridges helped shape NYC into the bustling city we know today.
July 21st–November 13th, 2023
With major loans from a dozen lenders across India, as well as from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, it transports visitors into the world of early Buddhist imagery that gave expression to this new religion as it grew from a core set of ethical teachings into one of the world’s great religions. Objects associated with Indo-Roman exchange reveal India’s place in early global trade.
The exhibition showcases objects in various media, including limestone sculptures, gold, silver, bronze, rock crystal, and ivory. Highlights include spectacular sculptures from southern India—newly discovered and never before publicly exhibited masterpieces—that add to the world canon of early Buddhist art. On view: July 21st–November 13th, 2023
West 57th Street has been attracting Manhattan’s wealthiest residents for centuries–a former amalgamation of brownstone and gothic mansions in the 1800s, the street has evolved into a hotspot for supertall luxury skyscrapers boasting the three tallest residential buildings in the world.
Join Nick as he deep-dives into the area’s rich history and explains why Billionaires’ Row could only be built on 57th Street.
At the time of its construction, there was fierce competition to win the title of tallest building in the world. The Chrysler Building claimed the title in 1929, and the Empire State Building seized it in 1931, its height being 1,250 feet (381 metres) courtesy of its iconic spire, which was originally intended to serve as a mooring station for airships. A
The boundary dividing these vistas from the interior is figuratively broken by floor-to-ceiling windows throughout–creating a sense of openness and fluidity between nature and the home. Join architect Steven Harris for an in-depth look at his design philosophy behind this unique family residence.
The Liverpool Biennial’s latest edition opened last weekend and has a South African curator, Khanyisile Mbongwa, and an IsiZulu title, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, visited the biennial and reviews it for us. And it is Art Basel this week, in its original Swiss location, so this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the most notable works for sale at the fair.
Valentine was painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1984 and given to his then girlfriend, Paige Powell, on Valentine’s Day. Jeffrey Deitch, who is selling the work at Art Basel, tells us its story.
Africa Rising: Morocco is on the BBC iPlayer now. The Nigeria episode is on BBC Two on 20 June at 9pm for UK viewers and on BBC iPlayer, and South Africa is broadcast on BBC Two at 27 June at 9pm. For listeners outside the UK, check your local listings.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s world-class bonsai collection is displayed in the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum. Some of the trees are well over a century old, with many still cultivated in their original containers.
The display changes with the seasons, and as many as 30 specimens are on exhibit at any given time. More than 400 temperate and tropical bonsai trained in classic modes such as the windswept, slanted trunk, rock clinging, and forest styles are included in the collection, one of the largest on display outside Japan.
Ahead of an exhibition of their work in London in September, we talk to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood—who has created the artwork with Yorke for every Radiohead album since 1994, as well the visuals accompanying Thom’s solo records and side projects including the recent records by The Smile—about their collaboration.
A new work for the UK’s Royal Ballet by the choreographer Wayne McGregor premieres at the Royal Opera House in London on 9 June. Untitled, 2023 is a collaboration with the Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera, developed before Herrera’s death last year at the age of 106. We talk to McGregor about the piece and the intersection between visual art and choreography.
And this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the most famous pictures in the world: Arrangement in Grey and Black, better known as Whistler’s Mother, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It’s part of an exhibition called The Artist’s Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia, curated by Jenny Thompson, and we speak to Jenny about the work and the show.
May 22nd – August 27th, 2023
Such iconic pictures as Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night take their place as the centerpiece in a presentation that affords an unprecedented perspective on a motif virtually synonymous with the Dutch artist’s fiercely original power of expression. Some 40 works illuminate the extent of his fascination with the region’s distinctive flamelike evergreens as they successively sparked, fueled, and stoked his imagination over the course of two years in the South of France: from his initial sightings of the “tall and dark” trees in Arles to realizing their full, evocative potential (“as I see them”) at the asylum in Saint-Rémy.
Juxtaposing landmark paintings with precious drawings and illustrated letters—many rarely, if ever, lent or exhibited together—this tightly conceived thematic exhibition offers an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate anew some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works in a context that reveals the backstory of their invention for the first time.
He tells us about the project. And this episode’s Work of the Week is The Room, Part 1 (1975) by the late San Francisco-born painter Joan Brown. The painting is part of the touring survey that opens this week at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and Liz Park, the curator of the Pittsburgh show, tells us more about it.
Keith Haring: Art Is For Everybody, The Broad, Los Angeles, 27 May-8 October; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 11 November-17 March 2024; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 27 April-8 September 2024.The rehang of Tate Britain is open now.Joan Brown, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 27 May-24 September. Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California, 7 February–1 May 2024. Joan Brown: Facts & Fantasies, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, until 17 June.
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