Things We Take For Granted
07/12/22 • 27 min
2 Listeners
Atlantic editor Vann R. Newkirk II talks to Kim about the mutability of memory, as seen through two portraits of the abolitionist John Brown. He also explains how a photograph of his mom helped him to appreciate the fragility of democracy in the United States, and why he tries to keep a garden wherever he goes.
See the portraits we discuss:
Atlantic editor Vann R. Newkirk II talks to Kim about the mutability of memory, as seen through two portraits of the abolitionist John Brown. He also explains how a photograph of his mom helped him to appreciate the fragility of democracy in the United States, and why he tries to keep a garden wherever he goes.
See the portraits we discuss:
Previous Episode
Glimpsing Freedom
1 RecommendationsPhotography and the Civil War crashed into one another, making it affordable for soldiers to have their picture taken before going off to war. What Black soldiers communicated in these images was a desire not just for freedom, but for citizenship. But they didn't always control how their photographs were used.
Drs. Deborah Willis and Rhea Combs talk with Kim about the photographs taken of - and for - Civil War Soldiers. Because it turns out there’s a big difference.
See the portraits we discuss:
Next Episode
BONUS: Portraying The Presidents
1 RecommendationsThe House committee investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has generated a lot of interest in one of the National Portrait Gallery’s latest commissions -- an official portrait of former President Donald Trump. So we decided to revisit an episode that takes a spin through the ‘America’s Presidents’ exhibition.
Director Kim Sajet digs into the thorny question of what a presidential portrait is meant to convey, especially if the president in question has been impeached. Should it carry the glow of prestige, or the markers of personal failings? Is this gallery hallowed ground, or a place to question power? "If you're in the business of showing these paintings," says Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott, "you want to send people out a little hungry."
Also featuring former deputy director Carolyn Carr.
See the portraits we discuss here:
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