Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

My guest this week is Tim Bogatz from The Art of Education and host of Art Ed Radio. He was kind enough to join me to talk about Robert Longo.

American artist Robert Longo rose to prominence as a defining figure of the late 20th-century art scene, widely recognized for his monumental scale, multidisciplinary projects, and cinematic aesthetic. His breakthrough series, Men in the Cities, created in the late 1970s and early 1980s, features sharply dressed subjects captured in extreme, contorted poses rendered in stark black and white. Working with friends and fellow artists, including Cindy Sherman, as models, Longo photographed figures in dynamic, off-balance movements on a New York rooftop before translating the imagery into towering graphite and charcoal drawings. The resulting compositions present an ambiguous tension between ecstatic dance and sudden physical impact, blending corporate aesthetics with an edgy, post-punk subversion.

Beyond figurative studies, Longo's practice is defined by a mastery of medium, monumental scale, and subtractive drawing techniques. Approaching charcoal much like a sculptor, he applies dense layers of dark pigment and carves light and form back out of the surface using an array of erasers. This process yields dramatic, high-contrast works measuring eight feet or more, spanning subjects from massive ocean waves and wildlife to cathedral interiors and historical iconography. Combined with his work in music video and feature film direction, Longo’s photorealistic drawings interrogate power, modern culture, and the emotional impact of contemporary imagery.

See more of Longo's work at his website: https://www.robertlongo.com/series/meninthecity/

Find Tim Bogatz online:

The Art of Education

The Art of Ed Community

Art Ed Radio

Related episodes of Who ARTed:

Christo and Jeanne-Claude | The Floating Piers

Walter de Maria | The Lightning Field

Felix Gonzales-Torres

Claude Monet

Wassily Kandinski

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
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Aztec art served as a vital instrument of statecraft, religious ceremony, and cosmic order rather than individualized aesthetic expression. Organized into royal and religious guilds, master artisans known as tolteca worked in dedicated neighborhoods across Tenochtitlan, mastering lapidary arts, stone carving, and metalwork. Elite featherworkers (amanteca) produced radiant mosaic tapestries, headdresses, and ceremonial shields from iridescent quetzal, macaw, and hummingbird plumage, items prized far above gold or silver for their spiritual association with breath, solar rays, and divine vitality. Aztec sculptors carved massive, dense volcanic rocks such as basalt and andesite without iron chisels, relying instead on harder mineral hammerstones, quartzite abrasives, and water to achieve crisp detail. Although centuries of weathering left these stone monuments bare and monochromatic, they were originally coated in lime plaster and brilliantly painted with mineral pigments like ochre, cinnabar, and Maya blue to demarcate cosmological realms. Beyond monumental sculpture, scribe-painters (tlacuiloque) documented historical chronologies, rituals, and tributary records on accordion-folded deerskin and amatl bark paper using an intricate system of pictographs, ideographs, and phonetic rebuses.

Monumental stone sculpture served as both a spiritual anchor and an expression of imperial cosmology, alternating between stylized divine iconography and striking anatomical naturalism. Sculptors observed the natural world with precision, carving lifelike toads, rattlesnakes, grasshoppers, and canines that captured the vital essence and seasonal rhythms of sacred fauna. The pinnacle of this stonework is exemplified by the iconic Aztec Sun Stone, an intricately carved volcanic monolith commemorating the creation of the Fifth Sun, dated to 13 Reed. At its core, the stone features a solar or terrestrial deity, variously interpreted as Tonatiuh, Yohualtonatiuh, or the earth monster Tlaltecuhtli, flanked by the four previous world ages destroyed by jaguars, wind, fiery rain, and floods. Encircling the central deity are bands depicting the twenty day signs of the 260-day ritual calendar (tonalpohualli), cosmological symbols of jade and turquoise denoting the heavens, and two celestial fire serpents (xiuhcoatl) framing the perimeter. Together, these elements transformed raw volcanic stone into a permanent theological treatise mapping the cycles of time, divine sacrifice, and cosmic stability.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
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Sir Anish Kapoor is an internationally acclaimed British-Indian sculptor celebrated for his pioneering investigations into scale, void, and perceptual depth. Emerging in the early 1980s as part of the New British Sculpture movement, Kapoor initially gained renown for forms coated in intense, unbound raw pigments, a technique influenced by traditional Hindu ritual powders, before expanding into colossal public installations using materials such as reflective stainless steel, polished stone, and light-absorbing Vantablack. His decorated career includes major honors such as the 1991 Turner Prize, a 2013 knighthood for services to the visual arts, and the 2017 Genesis Prize, from which he directed the full $1 million award toward humanitarian organizations aiding Syrian and Rohingya refugees.

Among his most iconic monumental installations is Cloud Gate, commonly known as "The Bean," situated in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Inspired by the fluid properties of liquid mercury, the elliptical structure measures 33 feet high, 42 feet wide, and 66 feet long, weighing approximately 110 tons. Engineered in collaboration with Performance Structures, Inc. and Arup, the exterior comprises 168 stainless steel plates welded together and polished to an entirely seamless, mirror-like finish that reflects the Chicago skyline and surrounding park. Featuring a 12-foot concave underbelly known as the omphalos, Cloud Gate eliminates traditional pedestals to create an interactive civic landmark that draws millions of visitors each year.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
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Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000) was an Austrian visual artist, architect, and environmental philosopher renowned for his vibrant, unconventional aesthetic and radical ecological convictions. Rejecting the rigid straight lines and functional geometric grids of modernist architecture, Hundertwasser championed organic forms, irregular contours, spirals, and vivid mineral pigments. His artistic worldview prompted him to adopt names reflecting his ideals including “Regentag” (Rainy Day) and “Dunkelbunt” (Dark-Multicolored) and led him to advocate for architectural concepts such as the "window right," which granted tenants the autonomy to decorate outer walls, and the integration of dry composting toilets to restore natural ecological cycles.

A pioneer of biophilic design, Hundertwasser merged urban development with the natural world through features like undulating forest-floor interiors, soil-covered green rooftops, and “tree tenants” that grew through exterior openings. These principles culminated in landmark works such as the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, a municipal apartment complex created alongside architect Peter Pelikan and completed in 1985. Defined by its asymmetrical color-blocked facade, whimsical ceramic mosaics, gilded onion domes, and over 250 integrated trees and shrubs, the complex serves as an enduring model of low-cost public housing harmonized with living nature.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
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Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer who transformed the design landscape of the late 20th century by challenging the rigid functionalism of modernist architecture. Born in Austria and trained in Turin, Sottsass cultivated a philosophy centered on human joy and playful expression, values cemented during his time as a prisoner of war in World War II. After gaining international acclaim for iconic industrial works like the bright red Olivetti Valentine typewriter, he grew disillusioned with corporate minimalism. In December 1980, Sottsass gathered a collective of young international designers in Milan to establish the Memphis Group, a radical movement that debuted in 1981 and defined 1980s postmodern aesthetics through electric neon colors, asymmetric geometry, and whimsical laminates.

A definitive example of this design philosophy is Sottsass’s 1981 Carlton bookcase, a monumental room divider created for the inaugural Memphis Milano exhibition. Constructed from medium-density fiberboard clad in vibrant plastic laminates, the piece playfully subverts conventional luxury furniture by utilizing synthetic materials and slanted shelves that embrace visual chaos over utilitarian storage. Featuring an anthropomorphic, totem-like silhouette set above a signature squiggled "Bacterio" pattern base, the Carlton merges ancient ceremonial forms with contemporary pop culture. Sottsass's boundary-pushing creations proved that the primary function of design extends beyond mere utility, serving instead to inject emotion, humor, and vitality into daily life.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices