Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / The Artist

Transcript

The Artist · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Museums all over the world are home to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the finest works of arts ever created. New York City's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Museum of Modern Art houses pieces by Andy Warhol, Claude Monet,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and Jackson Pollock, as well as Vincent van Gogh's iconic
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: painting Starry Night. The Louve in Paris houses the Mona
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci her rye Smile greeting each
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: guest who passes by. Such works in vite speculation as
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to what the artist was thinking when they made it,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: What is it telling us? What does it say about
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the world at large? Art is subjective, often up to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: all kinds of interpretation. Some pieces, however, transcend simple questions
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about intent and meaning. They are made with the same
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: kind of skill other artists only dream of. These works
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: don't only invite interpretation, they demand it. Such were the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: paintings of Pierre Brissa. Brissau exploded onto the Swedish art
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: scene in nineteen sixty four. His first exhibition was held
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in gerta Borga, Sweden, and the critics loved him. Ralph Anderberg,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: art critic for the local paper, said, Brisseau paints with
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: powerful strokes, but also with clear determination, and then he
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: added that he performed with the delicacy of a ballet dancer.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Brisseau had been discovered by Daca Axelsson, who insisted he
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: share his paintings with the rest of the world. Axelson
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: had been invited into the artist studio weeks earlier, where
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: he selected four of the painters finest pieces and had
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: them put up in the gallery. Brassau's paintings took the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: medium to a whole new level at a time when
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: abstract art was gaining in popularity across Sweden. A private
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: collector immediately bought one of his paintings for ninety dollars,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: which would equal about seven hundred dollars today. Sadly, Brassau's
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: work was not long for this world. He stopped painting
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: after his first show, most likely brought on by one
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: critics scathing review the following day. It read only an
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: ape could have done this. Now. Other artists might have
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: shrugged off such an unpleasant sentiment, but not Brazow, probably
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: because the critic wasn't wrong. Pierre Braza was no artist.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: He was a chimpanzee. His real name was Peter. Pierre
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Brazou was the pseudonym that Axelsson used when he submitted
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: his paintings to the gallery. Axelsson had actually been a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: journalist who wanted to test the credibility of art critics
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: at the time. Did they really know what they were
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: talking about or were they full of it? He believed
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: most critics were snobs who couldn't necessarily tell the difference
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: between good art and bad. Well, their real test was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: about to begin. Axelsson traveled to a zoo in northern
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Sweden looking for his perfect painter, and that's when he
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: found Peter, a four year old West African chimpanzee. With
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the zookeeper's permission, Axelson presented Peter with some oil paints,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: which he took to immediately, just not in the way
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: everyone expected Peter ate them. Cobalt blue seemed to be
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the most delicious he loved it so much he used
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it in most of his paintings. Once he got tired
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of eating his materials, he would put his brush to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the canvas. It also helped that they always had a
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: basket of bananas nearby while he painted, keeping him distracted
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: from swallowing another mouthful of blue. At his hungriest, he
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: would eat up to nine bananas in ten minutes. After
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Peter completed a bunch of paintings, Axelson took the four
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: he thought were best and sent them to the gallery
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: to be displayed. The trap had been set and almost
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: everyone had fallen for it. Ralph Edinburgh didn't seem bothered
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: by the Hoaxes reveal. In the end, he stood by
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: his original statement, claiming Peter's painting had still been the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: best in the exhibition. Peter left Sweden a few years later,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: living out the rest of his days at the Chester
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Zoo in England. He might not have gone on to
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: great fame and fortune, but Peter had done something even better.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: He turned the tables on a bunch of stuffy art
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: critics and made a monkey out of all of them.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: In August of eighteen sixty two, Confederate General Robert E.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Lee had just come off to victorious campaigns at Manassas, Virginia,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: otherwise known as Bull Run. The Union's defeats had been swift,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as Lee had a reputation for striking fast. The South
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: was poised to win the war. Panicked and demoralized, the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Union prepared for the eventual overtaking a Washington d c.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: A steamership even stood by, ready to evacuate President Lincoln
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: if necessary. The South, meanwhile, rejoiced with the news. With
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: such a strong victory, citizens demanded that their troops moved
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: farther into Union territory. Lee felt that one more win
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: over the Union troops would not only prove superior military strength,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: but might also affect the upcoming congressional elections. Lee had
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: just the target to the Potomac by way of the
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Shannon Doah Valley. With skilled veteran generals in his ranks,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Lee planned to send troops to destroy Pennsylvania's railroad bridge,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: cutting off the supply route to Washington. Stonewall Jackson was
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: set to command a raid on Harper's ferry, while Lee
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and his troops were to march into Haggerstown. Generally wrote
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Special Orders one on September nine, eighteen sixty two and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: sent copies to his commanders. After reading his copy of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the orders, James Longstreet destroyed it by chewing the paper tobacco.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: John Walker kept his pin to the inside of his jacket.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Stonewall Jackson burned his orders after carefully memorizing the words
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: everyone was ready and the secret was safe. There was
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a fourth general, though both Lee and Jackson believed that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: General Daniel Harvey Hill was under their command. Hill was
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Jackson's brother in law, after all. In the mix up,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: both Lee and Jackson sent a copy of the orders
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: to Hill. One of Hill's copies ended up in Union
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: commander George McClellan's hands. The lost orders were the start
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of a domino effect that eventually helped the Union win
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the war. With advanced knowledge of Lee's intentions, the Battle
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: of Antietam had a much different outlook, and as history
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: now shows, the Union troops prevailed. Those railway bridges remained intact,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and Lee was forced to retreat out of the north.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: With Maryland siding with the Union, Washington was no longer
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: under threat. States who had held back soldiers to defend themselves,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: now provided the Union with extra men. The Republicans were
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: even victorious at the polls. The victory gave more meaning
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Without the victory, that proclamation
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: might have come off sounding empty. In turn, the proclamation
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: convinced public opinion abroad to stand with the North and
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: its fights against slavery. But here's the best part. That
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: letter hadn't found its way into McClellan's hands by way
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of a spy or a trader. In a strange turn
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of events, Union Commander George McClellan's troops had set up
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: camp in Frederick, just four days after Confederate General Daniel
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Harvey Hill and his men had stayed in the exact
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: same location. Early on the morning of septem Private Barton
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Mitchell took a break after stacking arms with the rest
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: of the troops. He noticed something unusual on the ground,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a bulky package. Mitchell noted that it had already been opened,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and so he took a look inside. What he discovered
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: was a note wrapped around three cigars, presumably the kind
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Daniel Harvey Hill carried. Seeing the plans, he immediately handed
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: over the envelope and the contents to his sergeants. By
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: that morning, McClellan had possession of the package and had
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: already wired Lincoln. Lee blamed his defeat on those lost orders.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: His assistant General R. H. Chilton signed an affid David
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: stating that the order had been delivered, suggesting that Hill
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: had wrapped his cigars with the plans and then carelessly
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: lost them. But Hill insisted that the only copy he
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: had ever received had been from Jackson, not Lee. One
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: hole in Hill's explanation is that Private Mitchell found the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: envelope opened, which indicates that someone had already read the orders.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Such orders were usually delivered sealed. Since Chilton could no
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: longer recall the courier's name, no one could question them.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Hill contended that the courier must have lost the package
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: after arriving at Frederick, between the time he'd left and
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the Union troops arrived. The second hole in his theory
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: how three cigars came to be wrapped in the battle plans,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: courier or care listeness. Whichever theory you believe, one thing
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: is certainly true that day in Frederick, Lee's battle plans
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and the Confederate momentum in the Civil War all went
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: up in smoke. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.