Recording Artists – Details, episodes & analysis

In season two of Recording Artists, titled Intimate Addresses, host Tess Taylor dives into the lives of six artists. From personal letters pulled from Getty’s archives, discover more about artists you’ve probably heard of like Frida Kahlo and meet some who might be less familiar like Benjamin Patterson. Listen as they collaborate, fight for justice, ask for money, work through pain, and affirm their resilience. Anna Deavere Smith reads the letters, and contemporary artists and art historians join the conversation. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

In this season of Recording Artists, host Helen Molesworth delves into the lives and careers of six women artists spanning several generations. Hear them describe, in their own words, their work, relationships, and feelings about the ongoing march of feminism. Contemporary artists and art historians join the conversation, offering their own perspectives on the recordings and exploring what it meant—and still means—to be a woman and an artist. This podcast is based on interviews from the 1960s and ’70s by Cindy Nemser and Barbara Rose, drawn from the archives of the Getty Research Institute.

In season three of Recording Artists, artist and futurist Ahmed Best examines the groundbreaking art-science organization Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). Through the stories of E.A.T.’s co-founders, artist Robert Rauschenberg and Bell Labs engineer Billy Klüver, as well as artist Fujiko Nakaya, who continues to make technology-inflected artworks, this season investigates how artists and engineers collaborated to explore the creative potential of new technologies. Learn about this innovative group through audio from Getty’s archives and commentary by contemporary artists, scientists, and art historians. Coming October 8, 2024.

Artist Fujiko Nakaya is best known for her ethereal sculptures made with fog. But her very first fog sculpture, which kicked off decades of working with this unusual and highly technical material, came about almost by chance—and thanks to her ties to Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). At 91, Nakaya is still making fog sculptures that compel audiences to consider the environment and our impact on it in new ways.

In this third and final episode, we trace the development of Nakaya’s iconic sculpture and explore what it can teach us about environmental and social justice. We also investigate E.A.T.’s relevance and legacy, from the 1960s to Silicon Valley. Archival interviews with Nakaya and commentary from art historian Eva Díaz and contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno round out the episode.

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Laser physicist Billy Klüver had always been interested in art. So when he started working at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the late 1950s, he began going into Manhattan and meeting artists—and in short order he was collaborating with them. He co-founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) to facilitate these partnerships and worked to find corporate sponsors, with mixed success.

In this second episode of the season, we get to know Klüver’s role as a kind of translator and middleman between artists and engineers, and learn about E.A.T.’s partnership with PepsiCo at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, Japan. Archival lectures by Klüver and commentary from communications professor Fred Turner and composer and musician Evan Ziporyn, who runs the Center for Art, Science and Technology at MIT, help tell this story.

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The Getty Patron Program is a proud sponsor of this podcast.

This episode focuses on Eva Hesse (1936–1970). Joining host Helen Molesworth are artist Mary Weatherford and art historian Darby English. Hesse is one of the most influential artists of her generation, despite having a career that lasted only 10 years. In a rare 1970 recording, made only a few months before her death, Hesse discusses the trajectory of her practice, her distinctive materials, and the meaning of art and life.

• Estate of Eva Hesse, Hauser & Wirth
• Cindy Nemser Papers Finding Aid

This episode focuses on Yoko Ono (b. 1933). Joining host Helen Molesworth are artists Catherine Lord and Sanford Biggers. In an interview from 1990, Ono reflects on her influences, her years on the international avant-garde scene, and the impact of her marriage on the reception of her work.

Barbara Rose Papers Finding Aid

This episode focuses on Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011). test Joining host Helen Molesworth are artist Rodney McMillian and art historian Alexander Nemerov. Frankenthaler made large abstract paintings by pouring thinned paint directly onto the horizontal canvas. In interviews from 1969 and 1971, she discusses the inspiration for this radical innovation as well as other early influences. test

• Helen Frankenthaler Foundation
• Cindy Nemser Papers Finding Aid
• Barbara Rose Papers Finding Aid

This episode focuses on Betye Saar (b. 1926). Joining host Helen Molesworth are artist Linda Goode Bryant and art historian Marci Kwon. Saar is the only California artist in this series, and her work has been deeply influenced by the region’s cultural landscape. In a 1975 interview, she discusses the diverse sources for her art and how she prevailed in the face of racism and gender discrimination.

• Betye Saar, Roberts Projects
• Cindy Nemser Papers Finding Aid

This episode focuses on Lee Krasner (1908–1984). Joining host Helen Molesworth are artists Lari Pittman and Amy Sillman. In interviews from 1972, 1975, and 1978, the first-generation abstract expressionist discusses her formation as a painter, the progression of her work, her relationships with fellow artists, and her role as guardian of Jackson Pollock’s legacy.

• Pollock Krasner Foundation
• Cindy Nemser Papers Finding Aid
• Barbara Rose Papers Finding Aid
• Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Papers Finding Aid