Episode 106: Christian Dior: Fashion Designer

Christian Dior

This week Jo and Alisha will delve into the world of fashion for the first time on Arts & Facts and talk about Christian Dior.

Dior was born in Granville, France in January 1905. His father wanted his son to go into politics but Christian was interested in the arts. He opened a successful art gallery with a business partner which closed during the Great Depression.

During World War II, one of Christian's sisters fought in the Resistance and was eventually caught and sent to a concentration camp. She was eventually released and Christian created his first perfume in her honor, Miss Dior.

While Paris was occupied during WWII Christian got a lot of experience in fashion design creating clothes for Nazi officers and their wives. Not the most glamorous way to become a fashion designer, but he did learn a lot.

The House of Dior was founded December 16, 1946. His first collection was shown in 1947.

Bar Suit from the New Look Collection, 1947 & example of his full skirt design

The House of Dior is known for it's fabulous evening gowns. Wouldn't it be fantastic to have a place to wear such a creation in this day and age?

Junon Evening Dress, Autumn/Winter 1949-50

Dior's first accessories 1949

In 1955 Yves Saint Laurent, who was only nineteen at that time, came to work with Dior. He apparently made a huge impression because two years later Dior told Saint Laurent's mother he had chosen her son to succeed him. This was rather bizarre at the time because Dior was only 52 years old, and showed no signs of ill health. Later that year on October 24, 1957, Dior suffered a fatal heart attack.

Yves Saint Laurent after Dior's funeral 

We hope you enjoyed this episode on Christian Dior. If you enjoyed learning more about fashion on Arts & Facts please let us know in the comments and tell us which designers we should talk about in the future.

Next Wednesday will be another Short but Sweet! Have a great week!

Episode 104: Deconstruction Art

Deconstructionism, by it's simplest definition, is the process of taking concepts apart and putting them back together again sideways or inside-out. It began in France in the late 1980's and is often associated with the philosopher Jacques Derrida. He was very interested in fragmentation and taking things apart, to use objects in a way that they were not typically used.

Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette, 1984-87

Parc de la Villette, Dragon Slide

Daniel Libeskind, Zhang ZhiDong and Modern Industrial Museum

Peter Eiseman, Wexner Center For the Arts

 Eiseman, City of Culture of Galicia

Zaha Hadid, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, 2012

Dancing House, Prague, Czech Republic

Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, Las Vegas, Nevada

Los Carpinteros, Cama,

Los Carpinteros, Free Basket

We hope you enjoyed this episode on Deconstruction Art! Next week Julia & Alisha will be talking about Victorian Fairy painting! See you next Wednesday!

Episode 103: A&F Top 10 Scottish Ruins

Welcome to Arts and Facts Top 10 Scottish Ruins! 

Here we go...

10. Dryburgh Abbey

9. Minggary Castle

8. Sweetheart Abbey

7.Edinburgh Castle

6.Dunluce Castle

5. Duart Castle

4. Elgin Cathedral

3.Skara Brae

2. Linlithgow Palace

1. St Mary's Abbey, Melrose

  

Well, that's it for this episode! Join us next week when Carrie and Jo talk about Deconstruction Art!

Episode 100: Our Favorite and Least Favorite Pieces of Art

This is our 100th episode!  It is an exciting milestone for us and we want to thank all of our listeners for sharing this journey with us!  We also want to thank all of our alumni whose work in the podcast over the years we treasure!  We have included messages from some of them in this episode.  We miss you Marie, Kenna, Mary, Megan, Chloe, Zach, and Lauren!

In this episode we each chose an example of our most favorite and our least favorite artists or pieces of art and had a bit of a smackdown!   As we discuss art together, we often find that we have such differing opinions.  Yet none of them are wrong because there is no universally agreed upon example of "best" or "worst" art. What we gain from our debates is a better understanding and greater appreciation for artists and their creations. 



Alisha's Picks
Love:  Winged Victory, or Nike of Samothrace, Unknown Greek artist, c.200-190 BCE
Hate:  Russian Suprematism-- ie:  Red Square by Kazimir Malevich, 1913

Carolyne's Picks
Love:  Apollo & Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622-1625
Hate:  Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) by Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-1517

Jo's Picks
Love:  The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner, 1840
Hate:  Dada-- ie: Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917

Carrie's Picks:
Love:  Antoni Gaudi-- ie: Casa Batllo, 1877
Hate:  Willem de Kooning-- ie: Woman V, 1952-1953

Julia's Picks
Love:  Red Room by Henri Matisse, 1908
Hate:  Street, Dresden by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1908

Thank you for listening today, we hope you enjoyed our 100th Episode! Next week we have a special guest host, Assistant Professor Courtney Davis talking with Julia about the famous French Neoclassical painter David.

Have a great week!

Episode 97: Irish and Celtic Art

Happy St. Patrick's Day one and all! This episode focuses on the rich history of Irish and Celtic art. You may not know this, but there is more to Celtic art than just the color green, leprechauns, and the four leaf clover. Irish and Celtic art is full of intricate patterns and symbols. Its' art tells many wonderful stories and is beautiful in its own unique way.

There are four main identifiable patterns in Insular Art: Spiral, Key, interlace and knot work, and zoomorhic images. You will see these designs in almost all Celtic and Irish art especially in the High Crosses, and Book of Kells.

Zoomorphic Image

Key Design

Spiral Design

Irish Knotwork

 The Irish Trinity Knot has several meaning to many different people. To the Christians, it represents the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. To the Pagans, it can represent the three main earthly elements being earth, wind, and fire.

Trinity Knot

 he Claddagh ring has a rich history with a heart warming love story. The heart symbolizes love, the hands symbolize friendship and the crown symbolizes fidelity. This ring has a very specific way of being worn and can identify a persons relationship status.

Claddagh Ring

 These crosses can be up to 20 feet high. They are filled with detailed designs and will be found in many mosque courtyards and cemeteries. They show the intermingling designs of pagan Celtic art and early Christian Insular art.

High Cross of Muiredach

The Book of Kells is perhaps one of the most celebrated books in all of history. It contains hundreds of full-page illuminations which are often painted with gold. It is essentially a book of illustrations. This particular page from the book is the opening page to the gospel of Saint Matthew. It is the initial letters of Christ's name in Greek. This page literally reads: "Now this is how the birth of Christ came about."

 

Chi-Rho-Iota, from the Book of Kells

Zoomorphic Design

We hope you enjoyed this episode. We will have a Bonus Episode going up next week with Dr. Bule and Courtney Davis from the School of the Arts at UVU with some exciting information about the future of our Art History program! See you next week.

Episode 95: Friedensreich Hundertwasser

This was an especially fun episode to record because it was a listener request! We are so happy that it was requested because the more we learned about Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the more we fell in love with his art and personality.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born in 1928 and raised in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Friedrich Stowasser but at the age of 21 he changed it to what we see now. He studied in a Montessori school but his real learning and passion came from nature.

Hundertwasser used the term Transautomatism to define his art style. This style is a kind of surrealism. The viewer is the prime focus to the art and it is all about how they interpret it. Hundertwasser was completely against straight lines and referred to them as 'godless and immoral'. He believed in being connected with nature and this concept was apparent in all of his works.

Painting: Color was his main focus in his paintings. He loved placing complimentary colors next to one another. He had two main categories for painting one was representing animalistic nature and vegetation and the other was the repetitive use of architectural symbols: houses, windows, gables and fences.

Yellow Houses: It hurts to wait with love if love is somewhere else, 1966

Singing Steamer in Ultramarine III, 1959

These pieces illustrate his love for vibrant colors and architecture.The lines may appear straight but he rarely used straight lines in his works.

Tapestry: Hundertwasser created his first tapestry because of a bet and created many more after that. He never used a template for his tapestries.

Yellow Ships, Sea of Tunis and Taormina

Printmaking: It was his aim to make many different unique pieces within the art of the graphic, thereby going beyond machine production.

Swimming Window, 1979

Architecture: Hundertwasser was quoted saying, "an uneven floor is a melody to the feet."

Hundetwasserhaus, 1983

Hot Springs Village in Rogner Bad Blumau, Austria

Waldspirale (Forest Spiral)

In his later years, Hundertwasser participated in nude speeches where he voiced his strong opinions on environmentalism and politics. His passion is what drove his art work to be completely unique and awe inspiring.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. Come back next week to learn more about Exiled Artists!