PODCAST

Gregory Meander

I talk about art, and sometimes I write. gregorymeander.substack.com

arts visual arts

All Episodes

3:36

Saint Genevieve Art Colony, 1930-1940

Gregory Meander ·

2021/11/18

I love archives. I love the the sense of possibility and sense of time. I think most are intimidated by the stacks and stacks of material. I find it comforting. It is not quite the wonder of a wind and water formed canyon, but it has a similar sense of possibility. What might you find just around the next bend in the river? When you are in the archive, it is best you have a well laid plan. Ultimately, when you are in an archive, you find something you weren’t quite expecting. I had been planning a

5:14

Autumn Leaves — Lake George, N.Y., 1924

Gregory Meander ·

2021/11/03

It was the first frost yesterday in Kansas. The first frost of this fall season. I noticed the ice on my windshield had formed. It is a bit later than usual. But, I thought to myself, when are the seasons ever “as usual” anymore in the age of Climate change. It is predicted that there may only be 60 harvests left in America due to the increase unpredictability of seed access, the health of the soil, and impending extreme weather. I walked in my neighborhood today and was struck by a tree that had

Salut Tom, 1979

Gregory Meander ·

2021/10/13

I turned the corner in the gallery and a burst of color met my eyes, my breathe stolen for a moment. The artist had already taken me on an operatic journey in my visit to SFMOMA’s Joan Mitchell by the time I had arrived at the back gallery towards the end of the sweeping survey of the artist. I had flown back to San Francisco to see these paintings together, which is most likely the only time in my lifetime that the objects will be together. But, there was one piece that has stuck with me, Salut

4:29

L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, 1961-2021

Gregory Meander ·

2021/10/06

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? (Mother Abbess, The Sound of Music) There was one reason I had planned in mind for my October 2020 trip to Paris and it was the planned installation of Christo and Jean-Claude’s L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped. I wanted to see a cloud pinned down in the middle of Paris. Though nearly forty years in planning, it was once again delayed to 2021 because of the global pandemic we are still facing (my trip cancelled like millions of others). Much like their other large

2:48

Apple Harvest, 1888

Gregory Meander ·

2021/09/30

How might a picture of apple pickers be a symbol of environmental and food justice and pay equity?Camille Pissarro’s Apple Harvest at the Dallas Art Museum is one of my favorite pictures of all-time. Actually, in a lot of ways this painting was radical and was seen pushing the idea of what was art because it highlighted women working, not nude reclining on a piece of furniture. I love it mostly because of who the artist was, Pissarro, the grandfather of Impressionism. He was Jewish, an anarchist,

4:55

65 Maximiliana or the Illegal Practice of Astronomy,...

Gregory Meander ·

2021/09/22

I recently was back in San Francisco. I had booked a trip back in March when the dates for the Joan Mitchell exhibition had been re-scheduled. I often struggle selecting one piece to focus on each week, especially after viewing so much great art between SFMOMA (Joan Mitchell), Legion of Honor (Wangechi Mutu), and the de Young Museum (Judy Chicago). I was able to visit each exhibit with great friends. Viewing art together, once again. I hit all my old haunts, re-visiting, and saying goodbye. It is

5:03

The Dinner Party, 1974-1979

Gregory Meander ·

2021/09/15

Who is invited to your Dinner Party? The guests have changed for me throughout the years. Right now, I think I might invite the fictional character Brian from Company, or the mystical Teresa of Avila, definitely Sacagawea of the Corps of Discovery, and Queen’s frontman, Freddie Mercury. And the one and only, Judy Garland (maybe Liza, too). Georgia O’Keefe and her many lovers (her flowers from Lake George might adorn the table). Essayist Susan Sontag and Rachel Carson of Silent Spring. Maybe fashion

Oklahoma! set design, 1943

Gregory Meander ·

2021/09/08

In my recent drives of the Midwest through Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, I have been inspired by the landscape. These drives Americans will most likely never do because it is not Interstate driving from Point A to Point B. These roads are not the typical “road trip” roads. The roads are tighter, two-lane, curvy, and a bit rough. The roads carve their way through the rolling farmland of the Midwest with barns and homes set far apart from each other. There is space here. My childhood