In this unmissable episode, writer Eliza Apperly speaks to Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts author Dr. Kate Lister, exploring the complex and compelling history of sex work from medieval London to the Moulin Rouge, ancient Greece to Edo Japan, and right up to the present day. In this wide-ranging and insightful conversation, Kate sheds light on the ‘pleasure quarters’ of Renaissance Italy, the wealthy courtesans of ancient Rome, and how royal mistress Nell Gwynne became one of England’s most powerful women. Giving long-overdue recognition to the truths of sex work, Kate explores historical and contemporary attempts to regulate the sale of sex, and spotlights landmark moments of revolt by sex workers, including the occupation of a Lyon church in 1975 – widely considered the birth of the sex workers’ rights movement.

Thames & Hudson

Sex work’s enthralling hidden history

In this unmissable episode, ‘The Art Museum in Modern Times’ author Charles Saumarez Smith takes us inside the world’s leading galleries, exploring the ‘Disneyfication’ of the art museum, how architecture influences art, the uniquely contemporary role of the museum café, and why COVID might have lasting impacts on curatorial creativity. As Former Director of the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery, Charles Saumarez Smith is well-versed in the making of a museum. Here, he traces a profound evolution over the last several decades in how we experience art and what we think an art museum should be. Once acting as ‘public schoolrooms’ that prioritised education and linear display, art museums have undergone radical shifts in recent decades, making ‘a switch from coherence to exploration’. From more commercialised Western galleries like the Tate Modern, MoMa and the Guggenheim, to the Japanese museums centering reflection and serenity, Saumarez Smith explores key questions about these extraordinary spaces. How does the architecture of a museum shape its visitors’ experience of art? Can a building ever distract from the collection that it houses? And how will museums emerge from their current existential crisis? This episode was produced and presented by Eliza Apperly and edited by Benjamin Nash.

What should an art museum be?

In this unforgettable episode, writer Eliza Apperly joins in conversation with Pepe Karmel, art history professor and author of ‘Abstract Art: A Global History’, and Kyla McDonald, curator and art historian. Together they embark on a myth-exploding mission through the history of abstraction. Abstract art, Pepe argues, did not unfold as a neat sequence of ‘isms’, as art history textbooks might have us suppose. The truth, he explains, is bolder, messier, and has much more to do with the real-life experiences of artists. This truer history also includes the work of artists who, because of gender and racial bias, have been traditionally overlooked, undervalued and othered. 'Abstract Art: A Global History' shines a light on some of the extraordinary women artists and artists of colour who are finally getting their due. This episode was produced and presented by Eliza Apperly and edited by Benjamin Nash.

Abstract Art: A Global History: 'Not your grandfather’s history of art'

In this unmissable episode, writer Eliza Apperly joins in conversation with Andy Friend, author of ‘John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace’, and Sara Cooper, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at Towner Eastbourne, to explore the extraordinary life and work of 20th-century painter John Nash. Younger brother of Paul Nash, John’s remarkable life was marked both by great tragedy and by deep, enduring love. This episode offers insight into the traumatic deaths of his mother and young son, his experience of frontline horror in the First World War, his nearly 60-year marriage to Christine Kühlenthal – which allowed for ‘outside loves’ – plus the rich network of artists who were John’s friends and contemporaries, and how John found refuge in his art and in the bucolic British landscape. ‘John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace’ by Andy Friend and David Dimbleby is available at: https://thamesandhudson.com/john-nash-the-landscape-of-love-and-solace-9780500022900 The Towner Eastbourne’s retrospective exhibition of the same name will run from 1 May to 26 September 2021. More info can be found at: https://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/john-nash-the-landscape-of-love-and-solace/ This episode was produced and presented by Eliza Apperly and edited by Benjamin Nash.

The Landscape of Love and Solace: The extraordinary life of John Nash

Listen to our new podcast in which writer and broadcaster Louisa Buck interviews Eleanor Nairne, curator of the Barbican’s acclaimed exhibition ‘Lee Krasner: Living Colour’, and Gail Levin, Krasner’s longstanding friend and author of Lee Krasner: A biography.

Has Art History Misrepresented Lee Krasner?

Jasper Rees speaks to Martin Gayford, art critic for The Spectator, about Bacon, Freud, 'the school of London Painters', and his new book, 'Modernists and Mavericks'. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/2HiYlUO

Modernists and Mavericks: Martin Gayford on Bacon, Freud, Hockney and the London Painters

Authors Fiona Rogers and Max Houghton discuss their new book: a vivid showcase of work by more than thirty of the world’s leading contemporary female documentary photographers. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/2htGeyR

Firecrackers: Fiona Rogers & Max Houghton on Female Photographers Now

Charles Saumarez Smith, author of 'East London', talks about how this area of the city has changed since he moved there in 1982. Describing his book not as a guide, but as a historical journey from Wapping in the south through Spitalfields and Bethnal Green to Hoxton, Haggerston and Hackney in the north. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/2F7Msei

Shoreditch, Hackney and Beyond: Charles Saumarez Smith on East London

Building upon his much-praised BBC Radio 4 series '21st Century Mythologies', Peter Conrad examines the enduring place of myth in contemporary culture and society. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/2Hm26F4

Tales of Our Times, From Apple to Isis: Peter Conrad on 'Mythomania'

DJ Semtex talks about this definitive volume on the essence, experience and energy that is hip-hop and its massive and enduring impact over the last 40 years. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/2vyHlnU

Hip-Hop Raised Me: Joe Muggs chats to DJ Semtex

In 1966 the artist Tom Phillips set himself a task: to find a second-hand book for threepence and alter every page, by painting, collage or cut-up techniques, to create an entirely new version. He found his threepenny novel in a junk shop on Peckham Rye, south London. It was A Human Document (1892), an obscure Victorian romance by W. H. Mallock. First published in 1973, A Humument—as Phillips titled his altered book—quickly established itself as a cult classic. Since then, Phillips has been working towards a complete revision of the original A Humument, replacing pages in successive editions. This process is now finished. This final edition presents, for the first time, an entirely revised and complete version of A Humument and brings to a close half a century of artistic endeavor. Tom Phillips writes: “I took a forgotten novel found by chance. I mined, and undermined its text to make it yield alternative stories, erotic incidents and surreal catastrophes, which lurked within its wall of words. I replaced with visual images the text I’d stripped away. A Humument began to tell, amongst other memories, dreams and reflections, the sad story of Bill Toge, one of love’s casualties.” Find out more at www.tomphillips.co.uk

A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel 1966-2016, read by Tom Phillips

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