BonusEp. 06 - Tamar Avishai interviews Dr. Charlotte Mullins, Art Critic and Broadcaster

Art history textbooks, so excellent for flattening curled-up rug
corners and holding open doors, are expected to tell us the entire
story of our civilization, one painting at a time. It's more than
any book, even one that weighs a spine-crunching twenty-five
pounds, should be expected to do. And it opens our eyes to the way
that history is narrated, and taught, and even, it follows, to how
paintings are displayed, and museums are curated. So much is
touched on; so much is left out. It's too much, and far too little,
all at once. Dr. Charlotte Mullins has decided to lean into the
brevity, and in doing so, manages to tell us so much more. In her
new book, "A Little History of Art," she tells the story of 100,000
years of art history, in, in her words, language akin to a haiku,
every word intentionally chosen, every artwork telling its own
story. She turns us into time-travelers in a scant 300 pages. We
talked about reading art history, teaching art history, writing art
history, and much more. Charlotte is the art critic for Country
Life and has written for specialist titles and newspapers including
the Financial Times, Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, RA Magazine,
Art in America and Tate Magazine. A former editor of Art Quarterly,
V&A Magazine and Art Review, she has appeared on BBC TV arts
programmes and is a regular on BBC Radio 4's Front Row and Radio
3's Free Thinking. She is the author of more than a dozen books
including a monograph on Rachel Whiteread and A Little Feminist
History of Art, both for Tate, and the internationally acclaimed
Painting People, and its companion volume Picturing People, both
for Thames & Hudson. Music used: The Blue Dot Sessions, "Spark"
Rod Stewart, "Every Picture Tells A Story" Episode webpage:
https://bit.ly/3ARd17U Charlotte's book: https://amzn.to/3TksKDl
Episodes referenced: Anselm Kiefer: https://bit.ly/31gUSwW Sarah
Sze: https://bit.ly/3NRnGmr Support the show:
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