Shows
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 79: Dorf Sex Podcast Crossover in GermanMe in German. Dr Great Art auf Deutsch. Es war spannend und ich habe Spass gehabt. In the Podcast "Dorf_Sex" by Dr Stephanie Meyer and Nicole Blattmann. Ich als Gast. "Zwischen Lust und Leinwand – Ein Ausflug in Kunstgeschichte und Erotik In der ersten Folge unserer speziellen Kunst-, Schauspiel- und Fotografie-Reihe haben wir einen ganz besonderen Gast: Mark Staff Brandl, aka Dr Great Art, Kunsthistoriker und Experte! Gemeinsam tauchen wir ein in die Welt der Kunst und Erotik, diskutieren spannende Themen, von politisch bis feministisch – und bringen ordentlich Power ins Gespräch. Seid dabei, wenn wir d...2025-05-1156 min.jpg)
Dorf Sex13 Zwischen Lust und LeinwandIn dieser Folge sprechen wir, Nicole Blattmann (Künstlerin und Sozialpädagogin) und Stephanie Meyer (Sexualtherapeutin und Ärztin) mit dem international bekannten Künstler, Kunsthistoriker und Kunst-Philosophen Mark Staff Brandl über die Rolle von Sexualität in der Kunst.
Was macht erotische Kunst aus, jenseits von Nacktheit? Warum war Sinnlichkeit in manchen Epochen skandalös und in anderen selbstverständlich?
Mark gibt Einblicke in seine eigene „Mongrel Art“, reflektiert gesellschaftliche Tabus, digitale Zensur und die Freiheit der Kunst.
Ein Gespräch über Körper, Blick, Provokation – und die Frage, was echte Sinnlichkeit im künstlerischen Ausdruck heute bedeuten kan...2025-05-1156 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 78: Art, Metaphor, and PoliticsMy podcast makes a come-back with some slight changes. I will still be talking mostly about art and art history, but will also expand my discussions regularly into visual metaphor, as I did in several recent podcast episodes, based on my recently released philosophy book, A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, from Bloomsbury Press London. I will also be adding a short "pamphlet" section at the end of each with thoughts about recent politics, as they are so prevalent and dangerous now, and especially when they affect art and the artworld.2025-03-2805 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Visual Metaphor, William CongerMy recently released philosophy book, A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, from Bloomsbury Press, features short descriptions of artists and their works which I find important to visual metaphor. Here is one, one of several times I discuss the great William Conger. Get the book and read it! But here is an excerpt. Link to page for my book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/ Europe: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/2024-06-1604 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Brandl Interviewed by Dan HillThis is a crossover episode, it is a short interview Dan Hill made on his EQ Spotlight podcast with me, Mark Staff Brandl, about my book A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art. Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight podcast link: https://www.sensorylogic.com/eq-spotlight-podcast Link to page for my book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/ Europe: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/2023-07-0433 min
New Books in Literary StudiesMark Staff Brandl, "A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art" (Bloomsbury, 2023)Today I talked to Mark Staff Brandl about his new book A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art (Bloomsbury, 2023).Brandl is an artist and art historian with a PhD from the University of Zurich. He is an Associate Professor of Art History Emeritus at the Art Academy of Liechtenstein and Higher Professional College for Art in St. Gallen, Switzerland. His work has been shown in galleries and museums in America, Europe, Egypt and elsewhere.Brandl is by his own admission an iconoclast, and somebody who mixes philosophical discourse with more polemical “rants” in advocating for cre...2023-06-1532 min
Dan Hill's EQ SpotlightMark Staff Brandl, "A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art" (Bloomsbury, 2023)Today I talked to Mark Staff Brandl about his new book A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art (Bloomsbury, 2023).Brandl is an artist and art historian with a PhD from the University of Zurich. He is an Associate Professor of Art History Emeritus at the Art Academy of Liechtenstein and Higher Professional College for Art in St. Gallen, Switzerland. His work has been shown in galleries and museums in America, Europe, Egypt and elsewhere.Brandl is by his own admission an iconoclast, and somebody who mixes philosophical discourse with more polemical “rants” in advocating for cre...2023-06-1532 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 75: Visual Metaphor the Back Cover Last episode, I discussed the ins-and-outs of the front cover of my new book from Bloomsbury Press, A Philosophy of Visual metaphor in Contemporary Art. This episode we have a few discussion points about the recommendation blurbs on the back cover by three very important and creative scholars Dr Daniel F. Ammann, Dr James Elkins, and Dr Philip Ursprung. Link to page for the book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/ Europe: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/2023-04-1713 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 74: I'm Back! Visual Metaphor The podcast is back after a break of about one year. I was extremely wrapping up my book titled A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art for Bloomsbury Press. This is the first of an arc of podcast episodes where I will be working my way somewhat improvisationally through the book. Not reading it out-loud, though. I will go through and find certain details, points, examples, artists and ideas that I want to expand on or use as springboards. Bloomsbury link: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/2023-03-1908 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!No Back to Normal in ArtCatastrophes, such as the Covid pandemic, don't cause problems and breakdowns in society as much as reveal and intensify the problems already present. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated already existing troubles in the artworld. Normal was not all that great anyway, and to revive it as a zombie would be even worse.2022-01-1808 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Design vs Fine ArtA new Dr Great Art Podcast Episode 72: Design vs Fine Art After a 7 month break, I'm back. My artecdote this time is concerns differentiating the ontological state of design versus that of fine art without denigrating either. They are different. It has to do with purposeful polysemy.2021-08-0412 min
Executive Office InsightsSummer greetings from Diana052: Hey there, it has been a while - I know. I was too busy preparing interesting interviews for you all that I almost forgot to record an episode myself. So, here I am. Super ready for my upcoming summer break. I will be gone three weeks. Still unreal to be honest but I so need this break. I have wonderful plans and will make memories. I hope you enjoy your summer as well, no matter if you are travelling or staying home enjoying a detoxing phase, some good books or anything else. I will for...2021-07-1411 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Santa's Look RepriseChristmas time! A Dr Great Art podcast about how Santa Claus LOOKS --- the history of his visual appearance. St. Nicholas, Thomas Nast, Fred Mizen, Coca-Cola, Luther, the Orthodox Santa, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Puritans, Nazis and more including the Swiss Samichlaus and Schmutzli This is the 71st Dr Great Art podcast, a reprise from way back, podcast number 5. In this troublesome time of Covid, Lockdowns and the attempted fascist takeovers of the US and the UK still in progress, let us pray that times get better. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Yuletide, Happy Solstice, Happy...2020-12-1108 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 3 of 3.The New Dr Great Art Podcast, Episode 70. The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 3 of 3. The third of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Conceptual Blending, Foundational Metaphors and Allusciviousness in visual metaphors. Sonya Clark, William Conger, and more.2020-12-0240 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 2 of 3.The New Dr Great Art Podcast, Episode 69. The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 2 of 3. The second of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Trope: including metaphor, metonymy, simile, synecdoche, litotes, hyperbole, irony, analogy, allegory, symbol, metalepsis and so on. Visual metaphors are not linguistic, nor illustrations of them; they are more deeply embodied. Analytic philosophy and cognitive metaphor theory.2020-11-2122 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 1 of 3.The first of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Is there a set of structural rules governing the creation of visual metaphors by artists that parallels the conventions of linguistic grammar? Analytic philosophy, Literary theory, cognitive metaphor theory, Anti-Positivism, Similarities and more interesting dissimilarities between linguistic and visual tropes, and the ludic!2020-11-0125 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Why Visual Metaphors Matter, Part 3 of 3The third of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.2020-10-1921 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Why Visual Metaphors Matter, Part 2 of 3The second of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.2020-10-1418 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Why Visual Metaphors Matter, Part 1 of 3The first of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.2020-10-0520 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Visual Metaphor Part 3 of 3The third of three parts of a breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy. A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 3 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.2020-06-1416 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Visual Metaphor Part 2 of 3The second of three parts of a breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy. A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 2 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.2020-05-1020 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Visual Metaphor, What is It? (Chp 2)A breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy. A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 1 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.2020-04-1616 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Corona Pandemic Online DiscussionsSince we have to keep a certain social-distancing in real life, social contact online is important. I am inviting all to join me in online streaming "live" art history and art discussions. Skype (mark.staff.brandl), Facebook ("Mark Staff Brandl" or "Dr Great Art"), or Microsoft Teams. Contact me at Facebook Messenger or the Dr Great Art Email to set up a time.2020-03-1803 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Metaphor, What is It? (Chp 1)A cursory breakdown of the first chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, tentatively titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy. A discussion of what metaphor is, in general, as a lead up to my philosophy of visual metaphor. 2019-11-2527 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!The Blues Got MeThe Blues ethos as a strategy of persistence against melancholy. The Life Blues got me. I had a few slaps upside the head and they affect my art inspiration and production.2019-10-2009 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!(Im)Maturity in ArtImmaturity, maturity, and the desire for the latter in art and the repression of that desire in culture at large.2019-09-2908 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Academicism in ArtAn 'academicist' in the arts is someone who over-idealizes the art academy; one who follows the precepts taught there and insists others do so as well. Here is a short history of academicism and thoughts about the problem now.2019-09-0112 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Epsitemology in ArtEpistemology: the philosophical analysis of the search for knowledge. Does it exist in art? How and what can we know? Will it replace the ubiquitous ontological expressions in Postmodernism?2019-08-1611 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Grief in ArtA short, yet gloomy, podcast for summer. My mother Ruth Staff Brandl passed away very recently at the age of 87. In this tough, sad time, my mind still approaches the world through art, yet I find it hard to find any comfort therein. In our artworld nowadays, it seems almost ridiculous. Grief, though, like most important and complex human emotions, has been the subject or inspiration for many great works of art Her obituary is at: http://brandl-art-articles.blogspot.com/2019/07/ruth-staff-brandl-obituary.html2019-07-2306 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Dictatorship of the ConsensoriatThe creation of a term for one of the problems in the artworld, one very obvious around June each year when we all go to the Basel Art Fair, often the Venice Biennale, documenta etc. A phrase for the convenient conformity of (small) minds to have identical tastes in order to achieve hegemony.2019-05-3106 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Bluesman of ArtDr Cornel West has described himself as a "Bluesman in the life of the mind, and a Jazzman in the world of ideas." I feel similarly, I am a Bluesman of the mind, a Rock n Roller of painting and installations, a sequential-artist/comic-book penciler of art history.2019-04-2709 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Performance-PaintingsPeaceable Kingdom, Georama, Kamishibai. Edward Hicks, John Banvard, Toba Sojo. Inspirations and antecedants for my Dr Great Art performance-lecture paintings.2019-03-0312 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Braid Model of Art HistoryThe future art is not posthistorical, but rather polyhistorical, plurogenic (multistrand), not monogenic (single strand). There are various models and/or master narratives of art history, from the immensely limited discussion of the traditional narrow canon to timorous avoidance of any timeline due to postmodern guilt, treating artworks as mere stand-ins for particular ideologies. The late art critic John Perreault and I have created a new, more transparent model: the Braid, or Braided Rope. See additional content for an image of the Braid Model.2018-12-3014 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Color in ArtSome scattered reflections on the complex role of color in art including several things that bother me regularly in purportedly theoretical discussions of it. Color is wonderful, and necessary, but it is a happily difficult entity for theory.2018-11-2813 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!The Role of Hope in ArtIt’s difficult to look into the future with any hope. What IS the role of hope in art? To me, it is all important.2018-11-0410 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Mikhail Bakhtin, Dialogic Form and MetaphorBakhtinian notions which could serve as great inspiration for visual art include his sense of the living fluidity of expression; his concepts of heteroglossia, polyphonic form, and dialogic form; his insight that these may engender the liberation of alternative voices; and his presentation of the carnival as a suggestive metaphor.2018-10-0610 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Neo-Conceptualism, the TermThis episode's artecdote clarifies the historical terminology for the dominant Postmodernist art movement since circa 1985: 'Neo-Conceptualism.' Neo-Conceptualists themselves generally try to refer to themselves with the earlier term as 'Conceptualists,' but this is a political ploy, an ahistorical part of a powerplay, pretending that they are a part of the movement form which they derive.2018-09-1607 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Defining Visual MetaphorThis episode, I give my definition of visual metaphor. This is a new area of scholarly interest, and there have been few attempts to clearly describe visual metaphor or trope. This is an important foundational action and idea for the book on visual metaphor and contemporary art I am in the process of writing.2018-08-2607 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 41: Lawrence Weiner, Conceptual Art, and MetaphorConceptual Artist Lawrence Weiner is quite fond of formulating statements in which he claims to have dismissed metaphor from his artwork. He is completely wrong. No matter what is claimed, Lawrence Weiner's art, and most Conceptual Art and Neo-Conceptual Art, whether good or bad, is deeply grounded in interlocking base metaphors; metaphors commonly ignored because they are so transparent.2018-08-1009 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Goya's Anti-Academicist SpeechGoya's amazing speech to the newly founded Spanish Art Academy School. He was invited to speak to them as he was well-respected and was interested in helping other artists learn. Yet he had a profound dislike and fear of Academicism. Not only one of the best artists of all history, but was an independent and socially critical thinker, although he was court painter. Academics are scholars, and he and I are not criticizing them or their practice, rather AcademICISM, which is the worship of the Academy, the belief in Rules for Art and Creativity. And that these can be...2018-07-0909 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Copying in ArtThe phenomenon of artists copying each other and themselves (not forgeries, copies). Something thoroughly disdained since Modernism, yet an activity that was important before that, for learning, out of admiration, for expanding an audience, for additional income. And some thoughts about the situation now.2018-06-1812 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!New Historicism in ArtNew Historicism or alternately Cultural Materialism, and how its ideas are auspicious for visual metaphor, art history and conceptions of context in visual art. Art History consists of multiple histories, discontinuous and contradictory ones. The heretical response to authoritarian demand is important. Works of art express the problems and alienation of our or any time and place, but also frequently offer expressions of fullness that attack that alienation and help shatter the incrustations of belief forced upon us. Art History should discuss both.2018-06-0410 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Originality in ArtDoes originality in art even exist? A Matt Ballou listener request. "Make it new!" has certainly become old. Yet, the Postmodernist demand that a lack of originality be heralded as something new is duplicitous. A discussion of originality in art.2018-05-2112 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Lakoff, Art and Cognitive MetaphorMetaphor is the basis of thought, which importantly arises from bodily, cultural and environmental experience. It is embodied in the body, in the world and in the expressions of it, such as visual art. Metaphors we live and create by.2018-04-2110 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Telltales ShowHow is history constructed? Who makes history? And what will remain in the future from us and our culture? What is the truth? What is fabrication? Isn’t a well-told tale more exciting than simple data and facts? Facts are extremely important. Not everything goes --- yet all facts and sources of facts must be closely examined and often criticized. (Art) HistorIES.2018-03-0409 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Three Useful Feminist Ideas for ArtA short podcast presenting three ideas from Feminist philosophy useful for art and metaphor: pragmatic action over absolutism, the located self, and finding loopholes in hegemonies to allow creative resistance.2018-02-1305 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Seven Fun Facts in Art HistoryA lighter episode relating seven stimulating facts about Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Georgia O'Keeffe.2018-01-0707 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Sophistry in Art: Love of Art Over CareerismThis episode concerns a troublesome yet seldom acknowledged tendency in the artworld: Sophistry. Why are you in this struggle? Are you an artist or critic or curator simply for careerist "success"? Weren't you actually CALLED to art?2017-12-2606 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Models are Not Master NarrativesThis episode's Artecdote is an explanation of my assertion that art history models are not necessarily master narratives. Art History is often told in versions of one linear story, thus a master narrative. This often delimits thought, sustains oppressive systems and purports to be the truth, allowing no exceptions. On the other hand, the stringent fear of modeling has sometimes lead the less inventive to fall into the simple nihilism of "I give up." In fact, models are important dialogical tools of and for thought.2017-12-0609 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Exhibition Comics and Iconosequentiality in ArtA new artistic development: Exhibition Comics and a new compositional form: Iconosequentiality.2017-11-0310 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Genius in ArtThe concept of "genius" in art has rightly been criticized for its sexism, exaggeration and more. However, it is possible to retain its useful aspects by redefining it as the level of achieved pervasiveness of an artist's metaphor(m).2017-09-2513 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Representationalism in ArtWhat constitutes representation in a work of art? The representational nature of visual art is one of its most important, fruitful, and intriguing elements --- yet for very particular reasons.2017-09-1710 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Giotto and Halley's CometGiotto, the painter who made the crucial change from the Medieval style thus beginning the Renaissance in art, painted a picture of the Star of Bethlehem which is an image of Halley's comet!2017-09-0305 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Mongrel and Democratic ArtMongrel Art! Democratic Art! This Dr great Art Artecdote is a description of and plaidoyer for a (Post-Postmodernist) art that is anti-purist, syncretistic, and creolized, unifying a variety of artforms, disciplines, tendencies and philosophies. Artworks involving popular or democratic and street artforms outside the "standard" fine art ones, yet also not eschewing either so-called time-honored, nor technologically "new" disciplines, as it seeks to revitalize and transform them all, while opening the art system and deliberately involving people outside the field of art in artistic processes.2017-08-2712 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!"(No) Rules in Art"This Dr Great Art Artecdote concerns supposed rules in art, especially painting. It describes how there are really no rules in art, and it decries the obsequiousness of those who believe there are rules and who seek to follow them.2017-08-1809 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 17: Provinciality in ArtTimes have changed drastically. Now, what provinciality is has been turned completely around. It is a state of mind, not geography.2017-07-1710 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 16: Postmodernism ExistsThis Dr Great Art artecdote concerns the beginning of the period, or transitional subperiod, of art in which we now exist: Postmodernism. It cannot be talked away or ignored, nor should it be worshipped. But we are in it since 1979.2017-07-0314 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 15: Paradigms and Fuzzy CategoriesThis Dr Great Art artecdote is about a form of definitional conceptualization, paradigms and fuzzy categories, and how that is important to understanding art.2017-06-1710 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 14: Th. Emil HomerinAn artecdote about a person: Dr Professor Th. Emil Homerin, an important, inspiring scholar of religion, especially mysticism, especially the Sufis, with significant thoughts concerning art.2017-05-2410 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 12: Why 'Dr Great Art' ?A very short 4 minute episode concerning how this podcast, the accompanying performance-lectures in painting-installations, and indeed the art historian and artist Mark Staff Brandl himself came to be called 'Dr Great Art.'2017-05-0104 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 11: Syncretism, Easter, Mongrel ArtSyncretism is the blending, layering and uniting of different beliefs of various schools of thought. Easter is the holiday most evidencing syncretistic thought. Mongrel Art is a syncretistic form or art. Democratic Art syncretistically involves people outside the field of art in artistic processes.2017-04-2011 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 10: Why Art History?The lessons of art history are that they are lessons. That is a tautology, but an illuminating one worth elaborating upon. It is necessary to know history as personal empowerment for artists: to test the present with the often surprising facts of the past, to note how and why "official" history has often changed; second, to discover one's own personal, vital ancestry; and finally, in order to criticize and change art history.2017-03-2710 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 8: African Art History, the SurveyA short Artecdote concerning the difficulty in teaching an overview, or intro survey to Sub-Saharan African art, plus a free art image bank to download. Image bank link: http://brandl-art-articles.blogspot.ch/2016/10/african-art-course.html2017-02-1908 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 7: Art Beyond ComplaintA short artecdote discussing how criticism and complaint about the moribund artworld is important, but what positive things we can do to improve the situation.2017-01-2805 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 4: The 'Problem' with Performance and Video ArtThe question: What is the problem with Performance Art and Video Art? Are they really, as can seem, so often so bad?2016-12-0405 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 3: Pluralism, PluralismS, SchmuralismRe-historicizing Pluralism in art. It is claimed to be a unique change and to reign right now, yet it is not so new and has a past. Pluralisms have occurred at least 7 times before.2016-11-1510 min
Dr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 2: Art Mottos, Modernism and PoMoThe slogan of Modernism was Ezra Pound's "Make it new. " Postmodernism (supposedly) rejects this. What is its motto and what could come after that?2016-10-3006 minDr Great Art! Art, Art History, Visual Metaphor, Politics!Episode 1: Illegal to Teach Women ArtThere were of course female artists at all times. Most simply have been ignored, or even later removed from mainstream art history. Worst of all, for most of history in the West and the East, it was illegal to instruct or train women to become professional artists at all!2016-10-1905 min
Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 552: MSB vs. Chris DennisThis week sees the return of the once thought lost Mark Staff Brandl! Chris Dennis! From his site: Chris Dennis grew up in, England. He studied natural history illustration at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and this classical training is evident in his current therianthropic work. After completing his BA (Hons) at the University of Wolverhampton he relocated to the United States, and in 2000 earned his MFA from the University of Art in San Francisco. In 2010 after a period in Berlin, Chris made Auckland his home. He has e...2016-06-231h 14
Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 331: Venice 2011This week: Happy 2012! We kick off the new year with Mark Staff Brandl reporting from Venice 2011!
A Venice Biennale 2011 extravaganza. Mark Staff Brandl is in the City of St. Mark. Brandl, the Central European Bureau and VaporettoShark, traverses and discusses his way through this huge international festival with sporadic assistance from Peter Stobbe, Claudia Tolusso, Manuela Gritsch, Elisabeth Payer, Tamara Remus, Lucas Malsch, Adam Vogt, Sarah Rohner, Johanna Gschwend, Marc Bless, Manuel Ackermann, Chandra Marquart and others from the Art Academy of Liechtenstein. He covers many of the national pavilions at the Giardini park, discusses...2012-01-022h 02
Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 308: Basel 2011This week: Mark Staff Brandl reports from Art Basel 2011!
2011-07-251h 09
Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 292: Ieva MauriteThis week: Mark Staff Brandl talks to Ieva Maurite. Ieva Maurite is a young Latvian artist living in Riga. For the show this week, Mark Staff Brandl, (the Bad at Sports Continental European Office and EuroShark) interviewed her during her visiting artist gig in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Maurite is a painter, book artist and art academy instructor who has also had residencies in Paris, Iceland and many other parts of Europe. Maurite and Brandl discuss the itinerant European artist life, art study and the artworld in Latvia, Maurite's difficult-to-photograph linear imagistic paintings and generally have fun meandering around...2011-04-041h 06Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 172: John Jennings and Damian DuffyMark Staff Brandl, the Central European Bureau and EuroShark, is in
Central Illinois this time, interviewing Prof. John Jennings and Damian
Duffy, curators of the traveling exhibition "Out of Sequence:
Underrepresented Voices in American Comics," which originated at
Krannert Art Museum in Champaign. Jennings and Duffy discuss their
curation of several shows, their own art and writing such as the
graphic novel The Hole, their teaching, the extension of sequential art
beyond the "Masters of American Comics" notion, theory, the
socio-political, African-American culture, impurity, art history and
more. Hey Kids, Comics, Fine Art and Filosofizing! Big fun for one and
...2008-12-141h 09Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 170: Mark Staff BrandlDuncan "the fieldmouse" MacKenzie interviews Mark "The EuroShark" Staff Brandl, theorist, writer, professor, artist, and contributor to Art in America, Sharkforum and Bad at Sports.Richard expresses concern that Duncan is off his meds. 2008-11-301h 20Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 168: Derek GuthrieThis week, guest host James Yood and Duncan interview Derek Guthrie, co-founder of the New Art Examiner for an illuminating history lesson.New Art Examiner was a Chicago-based art magazine. Founded in October 1973 by Derek Guthrie and Jane Addams Allen, its final issue was dated May-June 2002.At the time of the New Art Examiner 's launch, in October 1973, Chicago was "an art backwater." Artists who wished to be taken seriously left Chicago for New York City, and apart from a few local phenomena, such as the Hairy Who, little attention was given to Chicago art and...2008-11-161h 21Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 146: Art BaselA Bad at Sports Basel Art Fair Overdose!
The intro and outro are extra
creepy this week. Highlights(?) include Duncan
talking about some fantasy involving wearing tight short shorts and Teena McClelland!!! Tom Burtonwood interrupts
the recording by shooting rubber bands. Chaos!
After Richard and Duncan are done making a mess of things, the real pros
come in and present a fantastic report from Basel.
Lamis El Farra, emerging
artist, and the EuroShark Mark Staff Brandl, seemingly perennially emerging
black sheep artist, traverse and discuss the entirety of the King of Art Fairs,
...2008-06-151h 15Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 142:Three for one!WTF? this weeks show is as long as your arm and brimming with what you need to know about the art world around you...It's a three shows for the price of one deal!!! First Duncan takes on the Chicago Artist Coalition to find out, what they do and what business they have publishing a magazine. Next,Terri and Serena talk to David Adjaye and Cydney Payton at The Museum of Contemporary Art: Denver and figure out how you go about building a museum. As if that was not e...2008-05-191h 41Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 126: Meszmer/Müller and Book ReviewThe Central
European Bureau, “EuroShark? Mark Staff Brandl and his new partner Lamis El
Farra interview Alex Meszmer of the art team Meszmer/Müller. Meszmer discusses
the exhibition they curated at Projektraum Exex titled “Deconstructing Eden –
Fragments of a Perfect Life,? their transitory museum-in-progress called Zeitgarten,
the Swiss professional artists’ organization Visarte, and the new group of
highly active “alternative? art spaces in Switzerland united under the rubric
“Off-Off.?
Terri and Joanna give their book review of Eeee Eee Eeeee by
Tao Lin . The "shitty drawing of novels."
Duncan
rages about how F-ing angry he is at the Art In...2008-01-2700 minBad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 92: Loveliness/ Evil Chicago PoliticsAre you tired of all the self obsessed, cynical, angry art
that’s out there today? Well Alex Jovanovich is out there to fix what ails you
and point you in the right direction! Terri talks to Alex about his Loveliness
Workshops.
Next, Kathryn talks to Paul Klein about the screwed up stuff
going on with public art funding in Chicago.
Paul is working of some interesting activist stuff and we will post a
letter/manifesto on the recent events, on our blog.
Then, Mark Staff Brandl checks in from the Central Europe
Bureau!
L...2007-06-031h 22Bad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 87: Art-ver-bridge-opolis part 1As we recover from Sharkstock 2007 we diligently post
Episode #87 the first installment of our team coverage of Artropolis, Version,
Bridge, Sharkstock and a bunch of other cool stuff we went to in the last few
days. Also prior to our soiree at Sonotheque we it Tony Fitzpatrick's kickass opening
at Architrove which was so crowded I nearly had a panic attack, I got to meet
his Mom, who was utterly delightful. Paul Klein spent most of the fair weekend worried that we
were stalking him as we were oddly on the exact same schedule at all times.
2007-04-2957 minBad at SportsBad at Sports Episode 71: van Straaten/ HokeHoly guacamole fun times! This week Kathryn Born interviews
Natalie van Straaten. Mark Staff Brandl talks about Jeff Hoke's kickass
book-website-museum Museum
of Lost Wonder. Mike
Benedetto gives a DOUBLE FEATURE REVIEW. Lastly there is a special bonus treat
at the end of this week�s show, it is a surprise.
Natalie van Straaten has been a professional writer on arts
subjects for more than 30 years and founded Chicago Gallery News in 1983. A
curator, educator, administrator and organizer, she serves on various arts
advisory boards and is a frequent juror in art competitions. She s...2007-01-0752 min