Jennifer Dasal/ArtCurious
232 episodes listed below
Jennifer Dasal narrates art history's overlooked lives, from Picasso's police file to Rauschenberg and Twombly's romance.
ArtCurious treats art history as something alive, social, and full of odd human detail. Recent episodes move between women artists in Belle Epoque Paris, Mexico City museums, Venice travel, and conversations about surrealism.
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ArtCurious alternates between two formats: narrative solo episodes written and narrated by host Jennifer Dasal, and interview episodes with authors and biographers discussing their recent books. Interview guests are typically art-history writers such as Annie Cohen-Salal (on Picasso's immigration status and Cubism's origins) and Joanna Moorhead (on Leonora Carrington), and conversations center on a single artist's life story rather than broad art-market or news topics. Solo episodes cover artist biographies and relationships in detail, including how personal partnerships and social circles shaped movements like Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Surrealism, with recurring attention to figures and stories historically underrepresented in art history — women artists and queer artists in particular. The show has also expanded into adjacent projects: Dasal announces and promotes guided art-travel tours to Spain, Paris, Venice, and Texas run with outside travel operators, and several 2024–2025 episodes are dedicated to her own book, 'The Club,' about the American Girls Club, a female-only artists' residence in 1890s–1900s Paris, including a narrated audiobook excerpt. Episode lengths vary widely, from short announcement or excerpt episodes under 10 minutes to fuller narrative or interview episodes of 30–40 minutes. Listeners interested in artist biography, art movements, and the social history behind famous works are the core audience, alongside those considering the host's affiliated travel tours or her book. The tone throughout is research-driven and storytelling-oriented rather than academic lecture or news-format.
Made for: Listeners interested in artist biographies, art movements, and the social and personal histories behind famous artworks, including those considering guided art-travel tours.
What sets it apart: Combines narrative artist-biography storytelling and author interviews with the host's own guided art-travel tours and book publishing, rather than covering art news or market trends.
Think art history is boring? Think again. It's weird, funny, mysterious, enthralling, and liberating. Join us as we cover the strangest stories in art. Is the Mona Lisa fake? Did Van Gogh actually kill himself? And why were the Impressionists so great? Subscribe to us here, and follow us at www.artcuriouspodcast.com for further information and fun extras. © 2023 Jennifer Dasal
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jennifer Dasal connects artists' work to the relationships, social pressures, and archival evidence that complicate familiar art-historical reputations.
ArtCurious treats artists' lives as routes into the work rather than decorative biography. Jennifer Dasal alternates between narrated art history and conversations with authors, keeping biography tied to creative development and relationships.
Picasso's police file and Rauschenberg's love life give you better museum gossip than any wall label.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A poised preview of The Club, using Elizabeth Mills to trace wealth, duty, and constrained influence in Belle Epoque Paris.
Jennifer Dassel turns this ArtCurious installment into a preview of The Club, her book about American women artists seeking room to work in Belle Epoque Paris.
A warm Venice trip preview that treats art history as something best shared in good company.
ArtCurious uses a Venice trip announcement as a gentle argument for seeing art where history has left it. Jennifer introduces a week with Like Minds Travel built around the Venice Biennale, Venice itself, and nearby art stops, with special excitement for returning to Giotto's…
A warm, intimate doorway into Leonora Carrington's restlessness, imagination, and lifelong need to create.
ArtCurious approaches Leonora Carrington through Surreal Spaces, Joanna Moorhead's illustrated biography of the British-born artist and writer, with emphasis on rupture, chosen kinship, and the inner pressure to make art.
An archival Picasso conversation that recasts genius as a story of surveillance, exile, and uneasy belonging.
ArtCurious frames Annie Cohen-Salal's Picasso the Foreigner as a return to Picasso through files, suspicion, and the politics of belonging. The episode's most compelling idea is that the artist's adopted France never quite adopted him back: his police file begins with an…
A clear, intimate ArtCurious episode about Rauschenberg, Twombly, Johns, and the messy afterlife of artistic love.
ArtCurious frames Robert Rauschenberg through the relationships that altered his life, first with Cy Twombly and then with Jasper Johns. The episode begins with a plainspoken point about how one person can change the shape of a life for years, then applies that idea to artists…
Art historian Tamar Avishai interviews critics, curators, and writers about single paintings and ideas.
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament interview artists about their materials, biography, and process.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins interview film crew about the craft behind specific shots.
Robert Bound interviews artists and reviews new film, book, and music releases with critics.
Sound art from places, recordings, and memory.
ArtCurious host Jennifer Dassel previews her new book 'The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris,' published by Bloomsbury on July 15, 2025.
ArtCurious host Jennifer Dasal returns after nearly a year of silence to announce her new book, 'The Club,' a history of the American Girls Club in Belle Époque Paris (1893–1914), to be published by Bloomsbury in July 2025.
Venice is calling.
Joanna Moorhead makes Leonora Carrington feel near.
Picasso begins here as a police file.
A bad art teacher can echo for decades.