It’s been a busy 2021 at A Long Look and here’s a peek at one of the changes happening on the show. This is the home page for the new site I’ll be launching at its new home, alonglookpodcast.com. The home page features a grid of the latest episodes that’s a lot easier to navigate. No more constant scrolling looking for past episodes! You’ll now find the entire back catalog under the “Episodes” tabs in the nav bar.
But don’t worry, I’ll still be bringing you the descriptions and backstories you love! And I’m starting work on Season 6 which will debut on the new site, so come check it out!
I’ve made a big change on the back end, too, moving the feed to Libsyn, the granddaddy of podcast hosting companies. You shouldn’t notice any difference in your apps or streaming service, your subscription will automatically update.
The new site will launch in early March and I really look forward to having you join me there!
Feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment below.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to celebrate Christmas after this dumpster fire of a year. But we’re starting to have some good news, so I’ve become cautiously optimistic.
But did I feel optimistic enough to do a holiday episode? Would anyone want to hear one? I put the question to you in Instagram (@alonglookslowart) and the answer was a resounding yes! You guys are the best! So I pulled together three past episodes on works by Jan van Eyck, Giorgione and Gilbert Stuart that reflect the season and the idea of hope and miracles. Follow these links to their page on the Gallery’s site. On each Gallery page, click on the image and you’ll be able to zoom in and pan around.
So please join me for this extended Christmas episode of “A Long Look!”
I’ve been trying to practice gratitude this year to fight against the fear and toxicity that’s felt overwhelming at times. So, I decided to make a special, extended Thanksgiving episode to share this idea with you.
I chose works from former episodes by Richard Norris Brooke, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Aelbert Cuyp that reflect some aspect of family, generosity, or forgiveness that really resonates. I hope they help you to also step back and find balance in remembering the good things.
We’ve reached the end of Season 5 and as this unbelievable year comes to a close, I’ll be taking some time off to figure out what’s next for the show.
It’s been a huge pleasure bringing you all the great stories I found and sharing the incredible variety of works in the Gallery. And talking to the occasional guest like Bruce Campbell and Sandy Bellamy was great!
I think what made this season special, though, was learning with you about the incredible Black artists of the Evans-Tibbs Collection. I was familiar with Henry Ossawa Tanner and Alma Thomas but finding out about the work and life of Margaret Burroughs and Edward Loper was amazing. We really only scratched the surface, so if you want to find out more about these and other Black artists, here are a few resources:
Did you know the US government once actually paid artists to work? During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration helped launch the career of Edward L. Loper, a prominent artist from Wilmington, Delaware.
We’ll find out how his lifelong curiosity, study, and teaching built a successful career lasting more than 60 years.
“Quarry” by Edward Loper, American, c. 1937, Corcoran Collection (The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr.)
“Chair” is one of Loper’s beautiful illustrations for the Index of American Design. You can see more on the American Drawings page on the Gallery’s site. The Index is listed in the sidebar. You can get a version to zoom and pan around in here.
“Chair” by Edward Loper, American, c. 1937, Index of American Design
Margaret Taylor Burroughs was an author, painter, sculptor, printmaker, curator, museum director, activist, and teacher who left an amazing artistic and historic legacy in Chicago. In today’s episode we’ll find out how she helped launch the Chicago Renaissance in the ’40s and how she combined her social activism with art.
“Still Life” by Margaret Burroughs, American, 1943 Corcoran Collection (The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr.)
Henry Ossawa Tanner became one of America’s most famous Black artists by depicting dream-like Bible scenes like this one. Click here to see it on the Gallery’s site. Clicking the image on their page will open a viewer that allows you to zoom in and pan around.
In today’s episode we’ll find out how he went from working in a flour mill to a successful artistic career in Paris and what he has in common with another artist, Richard Norris Brooke. And we discover a mystery about one of his early works!
“The Good Shepherd” by Henry Ossawa Tanner, American, c. 1918 Corcoran Collection (The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr.)
Jack Whitten. Photograph of Alma Thomas at Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition opening, 1972. Alma Thomas papers, circa 1894-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Click here to view “Autumn Drama” on the Gallery’s site. Clicking the image on their page will open a viewer that allows you to zoom in and pan around.
Talk about a second act! Alma Thomas was a longtime art teacher in Washington DC, who began her art career after 35 years of teaching. She took inspiration from nature, color theory, and the works of artists she met through her involvement in the DC arts scene. All of this developed into her unique, colorful style.
We’ll find out how she found success at age when most people have long since retired and achieved national recognition most artists dream of. And what she had in common with Henri Matisse!
The US National Arboretum was a big inspiration to Thomas and this gorgeous photo shows where she might have gotten her color palette for Autumn Drama!
The columns at the US National Arboretum, photographed by DC Gardens, courtesy of the National Arboretum.
Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Photo courtesy of the Ubuntu Biography Project.
Welcome back to “A Long Look!” For the rest of the season, I’ll be presenting paintings from the Evans-Tibbs Collection, one of the most important collections of works by Black artists in America.
It was the mission of Thurlow Evans Tibbs Jr. to raise the profile of Black artists by collecting and exhibiting their work in his Washington DC gallery from the 1970s through the early ’90s and by documenting their careers in an enormous archive. He inherited his love of art from his grandmother, known as Madam Evanti, the first professional African American opera singer to perform internationally.
Joining me in this introductory episode is Tibbs scholar Sandy Bellamy, an adjunct art history professor at Howard University and manager of the Percent for Art Commissions program run by the Washington DC Department of General Services. Sandy takes us through the fascinating history of the collection, and the rich legacy of Black art scholarship born at Howard University decades earlier.
This colorful panel painting depicts an episode early in Jesus’s career–the moment he called Peter and his brother Andrew to join his ministry. It was part of an enormous altarpiece for the cathedral of Siena.
We’ll find out what prompted the cathedral powers to hire Duccio, Siena’s top artist and how innovative he was in depicting stories of Mary and Jesus’s lives. And we meet a few friendly fish!
Episode theme is “Canzona ‘La Foresta’ (For 2 Trumpets and 2 Trombones – Rondeau)” composed by Giovanni Cavaccio. Performed by Michel Rondeau. Courtesy of musopen.org
Artwork information Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011), “Duccio di Buoninsegna/The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew/1308-1311,” Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/282 (accessed May 17, 2020).
