Why Make Art?

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Original Air Date: 
April 17, 2016

We grow up scribbling with crayons and covering sidewalks with chalk, and then around middle school most of us stop. Maybe we think it's childish or just too hard. So what can we learn from the people who never stopped making art? We'll talk with activist artist Molly Crabapple and legendary painter/printmaker Frank Stella. And jazz pianist Craig Taborn reflects on a lifetime of improvisation.

The Radical Artist: Molly Crabapple's Life of Art and Activism

“Refugees didn’t live in town. The overwhelming majority were stuck in a camp with layers of razor-wire-topped fences that evoked comparisons to Guantánamo from some of its residents. Meant for 600, its population had, during my late-October visit, swelle
Video

Molly Crabapple's art — her drawings, paintings and posters — have ignited various political causes, from the Occupy Movement to protests against the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo. She tells Anne how art can be a political tool.

A Thousand Times No

Audio

How do you join a revolution? Egyptian artist Bahia Shehab says she was too quiet to shout in the streets during the uprising in Cairo, so she started spraying graffiti with the word "no" in Arabic.

Frank Stella, Printmaker

Frank Stella, Double Gray Scramble, 1973.
Audio

Frank Stella sits down with Steve Paulson to talk about a lesser known aspect of his remarkable career — his work as a printmaker.

Pianist Craig Taborn on Reinventing Jazz Improvisation

Craig Taborn
Audio

In the pantheon of contemporary jazz pianists — from Keith Jarrett to Herbie Hancock — Craig Taborn is not widely known.  But among fellow jazz musicians, he’s revered. Vijay Iyer calls him “one of the greatest living pianists.

Art as Therapy

Street art that reads "Love is Color"
Audio

Maybe you're familiar with art therapy — making art to cope with pain. Philosopher Alain de Botton has a different idea. He thinks just looking at great art can be therapeutic.

Bill T. Jones On 'Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees'

Bookmarks

Choreogapher Bill T. Jones recommends Lawrence Weschler's biography of Robert Irwin, an artist who spent his career attempting to capture the subjectivity of the act of experiencing the world around us.

Make it Strange: Why Art is Like Philosophy

paint on canvas
Audio

Philosopher Alva Noe has a theory about art. He says art is like philosophy, and the best art is disorienting and uncomfortable.

Show Details 📻
Airdates
April 17, 2016
March 03, 2018
February 05, 2017
Guests: 

Molly Crabapple

Artist
twitter.com
mollycrabapple.com
To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Bahia Shehab

Artist
To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Frank Stella

Artist
theartstory.org
Craig Taborn

Craig Taborn

Pianist and Composer

Alain de Botton

Author
alaindebotton.com
To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Bill T. Jones

Dancer
newyorklivearts.org

Alva Noe

Professor
alvanoe.com
Categories: 
Art
Last modified: 
July 03, 2019