The art of postwar German artist Anselm Kiefer and the poetry of Holocaust survivor Paul Celan are both layered, dense, and hard to read. Sometimes the best starting point is through the layered, dense, and idiosyncratic ways that an individual processes trauma. So grab a spelunking hardhat and together we'll mine these layers of metaphor and materials, texture and text, golden straw and blackened ash, that comprise the unimaginable. This episode was produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes at www.thelonelypalette.com.

Raw Material

Anselm Kiefer by The Lonely Palette

This episode talks about a number of pieces by Alexander Calder. Calder is most well known for his mobiles, giant hanging pieces that move subtly with the currents in the room. This episode was produced by Accession. More episodes at accession.fm.

Alexander Calder by Accession

Roxane Gay reflects on Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism (2017). The Way I See It, "Roxane Gay and Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism" was produced by the BBC in association with the Museum of Modern Art New York. More episodes at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009bf6.

Kara Walker by The Way I See It

The best-selling novelist and essayist, Olivia Laing explores the influential abstract artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004). Martin – a gay, working class woman who forged a path in a male-dominated art world – embraced solitude and didn’t have her first solo show until she was 46. This episode was produced by Reduced Listening © Frieze. More episodes at frieze.com/article/bow-down-podcast-women-art-history.

Agnes Martin by Bow Down

Art History For All guides you through Roberto Matta’s surreal mental landscape, Invasion of the Night (1941), and explores its connections to physics and psychology. This episode was produced by Art History for All. More episodes at arthistoryforall.com.

Roberto Matta by Art History For All

This episode focuses on Betye Saar (b. 1926). In a 1975 interview, she discusses the diverse sources for her art and how she prevailed in the face of racism and gender discrimination. This episode is produced by the J. Paul Getty Museum Museum. More episodes at getty.edu/recordingartists/.

Betye Saar by Recording Artists

“A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is the experience.” — Mark Rothko This episode is produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes at http://www.thelonelypalette.com/.

Mark Rothko by The Lonely Palette

Connor is a portrait of President William Howard Taft. He's hanging on a wall, but is anybody looking at him? This episode is produced by Everything Is Alive. More episodes at https://www.everythingisalive.com/

Connor by Everything Is Alive

This episode, "The Many Deaths of a Painting" was produced by 99% Invisible. More episodes at 99percentinvisible.org.

Barnett Newman by 99% Invisible

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material's "summer mixtape," from SFMOMA.

Raw Material Mixtape: The Beholder's Share

Welcome to Raw Material from SFMOMA! Start here for a quick introduction to our seasonal arts + culture podcast, by SFMOMA Content Producer and Raw Material creator Erin Fleming.

Welcome to Raw Material

Sayre Quevedo, Raw Material’s podcaster-in-residence for Season 6, is at the end of his journey. It all started with a curiosity about the surprising ways humans are connected, and a wild plot to make his way to various artists through “degrees of separation.” When we first meet Sayre, he’s stealing love letters back from an ungracious ex. In this final episode, where does this experiment leave him?

Six Degrees Episode 6: Nikhil

After a series of false starts, rabbit holes, and mind maps, the time has come for Sayre to (possibly) meet internationally acclaimed artist Nikhil Chopra, the sixth degree of separation. Nikhil is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, splayed upon the floor. Sayre is intimidated, alone, and buried behind a crowd of Nikhil’s friends and fans. Will the two finally connect, or will fate have it otherwise?

Six Degrees Episode 5: Every connection

Nooshin Rostami is a United States–based Iranian artist living in exile. While her father was dying in Iran, Nooshin was 6000 miles away from home. How will she process her grief without physical contact—without seeing her sisters, her mother, and the body of her father? What will it take to cross the insurmountable distance between her and her closest connections? Her answer: light.

Six Degrees Episode 4: Nooshin

The sounds of rain, a family kitchen, a song, a late-night conversation—do the moments they encapsulate make us who we are? In this episode, Sayre Quevedo travels through artist Yetunde Olagbaju’s memory via a series of intimate recordings that constitute what they call a “living archive.”

Six Degrees Episode 3: Yetunde

Raw Material is an arts and culture podcast from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Each season focuses on a different topic, featuring voices of artists working in all media and exploring the inspiration and stories behind modern and contemporary art.

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Raw Material

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