Did pollution start Impressionism? // Ancient Japanese mega sword // Is it O’Keefe or O’Keeffe? // Baby bean in NYC!

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Buy Amara. This is a weekly news show where I discuss contemporary events in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. The format for the show that I sometimes follow is one typically used by western brides—not traditional brides, but western brides. Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

This week, we're going to be talking about if air pollution started the Impressionist art movement, an amazing ancient Japanese find, the correct way to spell Georgia O'Keeffe's name, and a baby bean in New York City. All that and more coming up on this episode of Buy Amara. Let's get to it.

Now, onto some ads. So, I said ads, but it's actually just one ad. And to be fully transparent, it's a company that my boyfriend Jeff and I started together.

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Now onto the show.

So, how are you doing? Welcome back to the show. It always feels weird to just jump straight into ads, but I think it just kind of makes the most sense just to kind of get it out of the way.

But how are you doing? I hope you're doing well. I feel like it's been a really long time since we talked.

Right now, let's just get into some updates. I don't have any personal life updates, actually, like at all. We just actually figured out and finalized my birthday plans.

This year I'm going to be turning 30. I know I probably shouldn't even say that out loud, but here we are. And that'll be in early March.

So, we have some really exciting plans. So, I'm I'm going to try to vlog most of it. I don't know, we'll see how that goes.

I start out ambitiously with vlogging and then as it goes, I just kind of stop and trail off because I get so immersed in the trip. So, I'm not great at vlogging, but we'll see kind of kind of what we come up with. I need to think about it as like, no, this is like a video photo album for me and my boyfriend just to look back on and reminisce about the trip and whatever, and this major milestone in life.

So, anyway, that is basically it.

I've been working very diligently on my business, which is called MAVEN. It's a social media videography business like I talked about in the ad just like a second ago. And just working really hard on building that and trying to help my clients as much as possible.

I really genuinely love what I do. I It's one of those rare moments in life where you actually have the passion to do something and you also enjoy it. So, it's like a win-win, I love it.

I have a lot of fun with it. There are definitely days though where it's just like, what am I doing? What is life?

But that's like with anything, so.

Anyway, let me just get straight into the updates for the show. So, this is actually a very exciting update. Way back in episode two, I talked about the port city of Odessa in Ukraine and how they were being attacked by Russian military, which is insane.

Odessa is a major historic area. I mean, it's absolutely terrible what is going on, first and foremost. But Odessa itself, just looking at it from like a cultural heritage perspective, is a huge, it's very important historically, and same with all the buildings that are there.

It's like a centuries-old port, and it's on the Black Sea, so then it's kind of this like this port city, kind of connection point between like the Middle East and Asia and then Europe, basically. So, it's very important. So, anyway, in episode two, we talked about how Odessa was being nominated for UNESCO's list of endangered World Heritage sites because of the war that's been going on.

And Odessa specifically has been attacked, but we'll talk about that in a second. So, Odessa has officially been added.

So, it's it's like a bittersweet moment where it's absolutely horrific that it even needs to be a thing where it's added to this list of endangered sites. However, I'm very glad that, you know, this is one sort of governmental thing that didn't take years to get to, it did take years, but it didn't take as long, normally, as typical governmental kind of things do.

So, I'm very happy to be able to report that Odessa is now part of UNESCO's list of endangered sites.

Like I said, Odessa was specifically targeted by the Russian military because it is this port city that connects to the Black Sea and connects to all the surrounding countries in that area. And actually, last July, part of the Odessa Museum of Modern Art and part of the Odessa Museum of Fine Arts were both destroyed in an aerial assault.

And UNESCO actually helped fund the repairs of these buildings, and also help fund, you know, the continued preservation or conservation of the works that are left in these buildings. Most of them were removed in February, I believe, of last year.

But, you know, you can only move so much. UNESCO's been really helping try to protect Odessa and all of these cultural heritage sites and things like that. Human life is way more important, I do want to just point that like put that out there.

So, yes, I'm very well aware of that. Culture is also extremely important though. So, we need to try to try to help as much as possible, obviously prioritize human life over everything.

And I did also talk about this update a couple of episodes ago, but in October 2022, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy made a formal appeal to the United Nations to place Odessa under protection. So, it was about October 2022 to about I think late January or so was about when it was actually said, yes, we will place Odessa under protection.

So, why this is such a big issue though, and why this is such a big deal, is because by being placed under UNESCO protection, this actually provides Odessa with additional international aid, as well as consequences for its destruction. So, Russia's going in there hot and heavy, just being ridiculous and insane, and like I don't even have words for it, it's just absolutely uncalled for.

Odessa then is going to be protected by UNESCO, and there will be severe consequences to damaging it. Absolutely horrific that this even needs to be a thing that's talked about, but on the bright side, things are being done, there is aid. So, hopefully, this conflict can just be over and just end, because it's completely senseless.

However, I'm glad that there is aid, and that we are able to help each other in times of need. So, that is the only update I have, so let's get right into the show.

The hazy, dreamy kind of quality of Impressionist paintings, there are a lot of different reasons that have been posited why Impressionism started. This kind of hazy, dreamy quality to the paintings has been attributed to famous artists, I think particularly Monet and Degas, as having cataracts, so then their vision was getting progressively worse as they got older, hence the change in their artwork.

Also, it's been posited that this is merely just a stylistic preference, as well.

Well, this is a very interesting new theory I've never heard before, and it's really freaking fascinating. A new study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the study argues that this stylistic change might, in fact, be in response to the air quality. It gets a lot cooler, just bear with me, this is really, really cool.

Two climate scientists looked at 98 different oil paintings. 60 of them were by J. M.

W. Turner, and then 38 were by Claude Monet.

Turner lived in England from 1775 to 1851. Monet lived in France for most of his life, from 1840 to 1926. So, big time span right there, that's almost what, 200 years.

But Turner and Monet overlapped about 11 years. The primary time frame that has been given for the Industrial Revolution is typically 1750 to 1840, but with 1760 to 1830 primarily being confined to Britain and then expanding outward and blah, blah, blah.

During Turner's lifetime were the first steam engines and trains. During Monet's lifetime, though, these technologies became way more prevalent. As these artists progressed in their years, so did the Industrial Revolution and so did, you know, having more of these things, because, you know, always at the start of something there were maybe like five trains or whatever, I almost said choo-choos, just because that's what I call them in private.

Five trains or whatever. And then by the time it was Monet's time, you know, that's that's a shit ton of air pollution.

The two climate scientists, Anna Lea Albright and Peter Huybers state that they believe because of the increased pollution in the air from all of this Industrial Revolution, from all this technology, this created a hazier visual environment, and then objects obviously would not have appeared as crisp and fresh as they did prior.

If you think about it, too, it is really interesting, because most artwork in Western Europe, the artwork and like the figures and representation, everything is mostly very crisp and clear. Like, there are some examples that, you know, not everything is going to be crisp and clear, but for the most part, it is. Until you get to Impressionism, which is really interesting.

Because your skill as an artist was mostly tied in, until this point, was mostly tied into how lifelike you could represent something or a person or whatever.

This huge shift in going with just the impression, which was like the base kind of painting, is really fascinating. To further support their claims, the scientists even went back to Monet's correspondence to find this little excerpt: "I'm working very hard, although this morning I really thought the weather had changed completely.

When I got up, I was terrified to see that there was no fog, not even a wisp of mist. I was prostrate and could just see all my paintings done for, but gradually the fires were relit and the smoke and the haze came back." That is pretty solid evidence for their claim, just saying.

Albright even points out that these paintings might not have been documenting the everyday kind of haze that people would have seen, but rather targeting the days where there was excessive smog or fog. I mean, if you think about it, it's hard It's kind of hard for us to think of a time pre- when we existed, because, like, we only know what we know, you know?

But thinking about a time before any of this kind of air pollution existed, like, yes, there's always been different types of air pollution, like fire or whatever, but this specific type of air pollution and this tremendous amount of air pollution, that is amazing. And wouldn't you kind of, if you were an artist, wouldn't you kind of be captivated by that and be like, wow, it's amazing how this can just kind of change the entire scenery and make it look very dreamlike and everything?

And that also kind of then ties into Freud-ianism and like the studying of dreams, I know that was a bit different of a time frame, but still, it's just very interesting to think about.

The scientists also even found a 61 percent correlation rate between smog and the contrast in the paintings. The scientists, though, they did also address the fact that Monet could have been copying Turner's style, because like I said, Turner came before Monet, and also that the overall style could be boiled down to people having cataracts or some sort of visual impairment.

But, what's interesting, though, is that the researchers also studied the work of other similar 19th-century painters who went through this same progression, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. And they detected the same exact trend in their work.

Again, this could just be because it was that natural progression in styles, and if you see somebody doing something that's being received mildly well, or at least something that's new and interesting and exciting, you might want to try it out for yourself. I have no idea, I think this is a very fascinating hypothesis, I'll just call it, just same with like the visual impairments of people as well and how that could influence your artwork.

So, I just think it's still really interesting to consider that, you know, maybe it was just this combination of all these different things, and then you have kind of like the heavy hitters, like the most famous people who were doing this, and then it kind of trickles down to everybody else who's like, well, I want to stay hip and current and make fun new artwork that's like exciting and new, so.

I don't know, just something for you to think about. What do you think was the catalyst for Impressionism? Let me know in the comments below.

How tall are you? You got your height? Good.

Our next story involves an ancient sword that was found that's over seven feet long. Now, I know ancient weapons and things like that could be very long, but a seven-foot-long sword, that's huge, especially back in the day when we know people were a little bit smaller than they are today, that is massive. So, let me get into this.

Japanese researchers in Nara discovered a large dako iron, let's try that again. Japanese researchers in Nara discovered a large dako iron, I keep doing. Why do I keep saying iron?

Japanese researchers discovered a large dako iron, got it, sword as well as a giant bronze mirror in a fourth-century burial mound. The two items were found last November, so in 2022, in the Tomio Maruyama. So, the Tomio Maruyama is a circular burial mound from around the end of the first half of the Kofun period, so like circa 250 to 600 CE.

Fun fact, this is Japan's largest burial mound, measuring approximately 109 m in diameter. So, we'll start with the mirror. The mirror, which is described as like tortoise-shaped and shield-shaped, so it looks more like a shield than a mirror, but it's a mirror.

And we'll talk about why in a second. That weighs about 125 pounds and measures 2 ft long and 1 ft wide, so nice, decent kind of size. The mirror also has really pretty, intricate designs on it, and these have also been found on other daryu mirrors, which I guess is the term for these mirrors, and those have been found in Western Japan.

It wasn't quite super clear what the different intricate designs mean, if there is any sort of symbolism to them specifically. I'm sure there is because most iconography has some sort of symbolism to it, so I'm just I'm curious if it's like an astrological placement or something, because there were a bunch of round like a bunch of circles, but with intricate designs on the inside.

So, I almost thought like maybe the sun or something, but I have no idea, I'm just spitballing, I'm a total amateur, so don't don't listen to me.

An X-ray was done on the shield or on the mirror, rather, and it detected that it was made of tin, copper, and lead. Now, let me get to the sword. Like I said, seven feet long, huge!

And it's also interesting because, apparently, it's a serpentine sword, which literally means that instead of the blade being, you know, straight or curved a little bit, it actually is zig-zaggy. Wavy is the term, actually. The blade is nice and wavy.

It looks really freaking cool. If you're listening to this, you should look up a serpentine sword, it's fascinating.

There are also markings on it that denote a sheath or a handle, so at one point there may have been one or both of those. There have also been 80 other dako swords that have been found throughout Japan to date, so this isn't just kind of like an anomaly, but this, though, is one of the oldest swords that have been found in Japan so far.

Freaking cool. So, this is where it gets really interesting, too. A professor from Nara University stated that the sword and the mirror, which were used to protect the dead from evil spirits, might also indicate that the individual who was buried with them may have been in the military.

Also, to be clear, it's very unlikely that the sword was actually used in battle, but it's more just like to signify and show respect to the dead that they were in the military. So, it's more of like a commemoration sort of piece, almost like a plaque, but way cooler.

Additionally, a member of the research team who found the objects noted that the size of the sword was super surprising because his team initially thought that it was actually several swords, not just one. Both items are currently undergoing preservation work. It's not clear if they're going to be put on display after the preservation work, but if they are, then you can go see them.

Quick, how do you spell O'Keeffe? You probably spelled it O-'-K-E-E-F-E, right? Well, that would be incorrect.

It's actually O-'-K-E-E-F-F-E. Georgia O'Keeffe's name has stumped many, many people throughout history, and one of the latest is in the Long Island Rail Road terminal in Grand Central Station. After years of an on-again, off-again construction project, the $11 billion terminal opened in Grand Central Station like this past week, couple weeks ago.

The concourse walls are lined with homages to New York City landmarks and luminaries, including an engraved quote from Georgia O'Keeffe. However, her last name is spelled incorrectly.

I find this so funny. Well, I'll get into my thoughts in a second. People quickly noticed the gaffe, spelled g-a-f-f-e, and the communications director of the MTA, or the Metropolitan Transit Transportation Authority, who oversaw the construction, they told news outlets, "We clearly effed this one up, and it's being fixed."

I just I don't want to pour salt in the wound, but just think of how many different people this had to get through before it was actually created. I don't know if this is on part of the people who did the engraving, on part of the facilitator of this project. I have no idea, but in a time where we have like mini computers in our pockets where it's a very quick Google search, I'm still amazed when shit like this happens.

No shade, it accidents happen to everybody. I'm sure if I was in the same situation, I may have messed up as well. It's just so funny to me when you are making something so big for such a big initiative, you wouldn't at least double-check the spelling?

How many fucking people did this go through?

But many, many, many, many, many, many people throughout history have gotten her name wrong. It is very difficult. I for sure have definitely spelled it wrong until I just drilled it into my little noodle, two Fs.

Two Es, two Fs. Done. Well, technically three Es, but whatever.

I actually also I read an article about this, which I thought was really interesting. So, most of us have heard about the Mandela Effect, which is some people vividly remember that Nelson Mandela died in prison, but he was actually still very much alive. He did die in 2013, but at the time, still very much alive.

It's just people having a clear memory of something that may have never actually existed. Some people say may have never actually existed in this reality, and it may exist in another one. I don't know how I quite feel about that, to be very honest.

And like you've seen people talk about the Berenstain Bears, where it's Berenstain Bears, spelled s-t-a-i-n at the end versus Berenstein Bears, s-t-e-i-n. Personally, I just think that always boils down to you just didn't pay attention to it, or you're so used to seeing -stein as the ending of a last name versus -stain.

I personally remember Berenstain Bears, but maybe I'm just part of this reality, woo. Sorry, I'm not trying to mock you.

Anyway, this all ties into the Georgia O'Keeffe story because so many people believe that Georgia O'Keeffe's last name did only have one F for like forever. And I also just think that could just be a misprinting that started one time in one art historical text or something, and then it was just replicated throughout history, so then it's like, well, it depends on where you get your information from, and which publisher, and blah, blah, blah.

So, if nobody like way back when you couldn't even Google, like 20 years ago, you had to be like, okay, I think this is pretty much how it was spelled, or you had to go to the library or whatever. Still recommend doing that. Like there are real-world examples, like I think a street sign or a couple different street signs, coloring books, various other things that spell it K-E-E-F-E, just one F, even though the correct way, two Fs.

Like I said, I think this could just seriously be not paying attention to it, because if you don't need to remember it, your brain'll just kind of like get like, "Go away. Shoo. Get out of my brain."

I also think because in like traditional eng- well, not traditional English, but in English, we typically don't have double like vowel, double consonant like that, that is pretty atypical, I believe. I'm not I'm not an English scholar or anything like that, or I'm not a language scholar. However, I do think it is very atypical to see that repetition.

I think her last name is Irish, I'm not entirely sure on that. But it's just it's not typical in our language, so we think, "Oh, K-E-E-F-E." Like it has to have the double vowel and then one consonant. I don't know.

I'm just trying to explain it, but I just thought it was very funny. So, the plaque in this terminal in Grand Central Station will be fixed. Very embarrassing for the people who did it.

Again, shit happens, it's totally fine, but hopefully you will leave this story knowing how to spell O'Keeffe: O, apostrophe, K-E-E-F-F-E. Yes, I did spell that correctly.

Ow, sorry, that was really hard. I was doing it with my other hand, and I was trying to fix my ear bud thing. I think my ears are too little, these things always pop out, I just shove them back in.

Anyway, our final story for today: the Baby Bean is in New York City! What?! So, you have probably no effing idea what I'm talking about when I say Baby Bean.

Here in Chicago, it's called the technical name for it is the Cloud Gate sculpture. It's this really beautiful, shiny, metal, kidney bean-looking thing that's in Millennium Park. Colloquially, it's just called the Bean.

Also, I do want to talk about how the Bean itself is very polarizing. So many people who are from Chicago, like born and raised, hate that fucking thing. I've never met a single person who's actually from this area who actually enjoys that.

It's just like It's one of those things It's it's kind of like it's very gauche to even say that you like it. I personally have no problem with it. Again, I'm not from here.

I just think it's really cool and fun, and you can just go like, and have fun with it. It's just like It's one of those tacky tourist things that's like, yeah, we all understand that it's like kind of tacky to play with, but it's still kind of fun. Like, can't you just have fun?

Just have fun.

Anyway, Cloud Gate in Chicago, unveiled in 2004, by artist Anish Kapoor. He also, side tangent, Kapoor has done some really amazing work, very just interesting sort of things that kind of have you question like materiality and your you, like your body within space and how it interacts with form, or maybe doesn't interact with form.

One of my absolute favorites was, it's called "Descension", and it was in like by the Palace of Versailles in France. It's just this whirlpool that's constantly spinning, and a couple people have said when they viewed it and visited it, it's very hypnotic, they almost like felt like they could fall into it. So, just looking at our relationship to, you know, this kind of abyss in the ground and where does it lead and all that kind of stuff is really fun.

That's kind of what Cloud Gate is supposed to do, where you look at your body in relation to the material, and like we are warm, soft kind of beings, whereas this is very hard and metallic and cold, and especially here, because it's cold all the time. And it's just It's very interesting. Kapoor does some really interesting work.

I know not a lot of people like him. I have no problem with his work. I don't know anything about him as a person just personally, so maybe he's a total shit bag, which I will retract this, but we'll find out.

Anyway, back to the Baby Bean in New York City. So, this mini Bean was just unveiled in New York. It's 19 feet high and 40 tons, so weighs 40 tons.

The Chicago one, though, to let you know, is 33 ft high and weighs 110 tons. The Chicago one is massive, it's really big. So, Chicago one, 33 feet high, Baby Bean, 19 feet high.

The mini Bean also is estimated to have cost around 8 to $10 million. I didn't get the Chicago figures for that, but this is what's really weird about Baby Bean in New York City.

It's located at 56 Leonard Street, and is wedged under an apartment building, so that the residents can actually view this piece from all sides within the apartment building. I was not able to figure out if the building itself commissioned this piece or what the hell is going on. What's even weirder, though, is, apparently, Kapoor actually owns a four-bedroom apartment in the building that he bought for $13.5 million.

So, this ain't this ain't like a This isn't a cheapo kind of building, this is a very luxury building, obviously, if having a giant fucking sculpture in front of it didn't tell you that.

I just couldn't help but have the voice in my head I work with a lot of realtors for my videography business, just to be upfront. So, in my brain, I immediately was thinking, "Oh, if he tries to sell this apartment one day, he could also just be like, 'Oh, hey, and there's a custom artwork out in front. Isn't that yours?' 'Well, yeah, but like whatever, like look at how cool this is!'" I just I couldn't help but have that feeling of like, wow, if you're trying to build up the value of your apartment to sell it at some point, I swear to God, if he sells this apartment within the next like year or two, this was done for him to make more money.

But side tangent, moving on.

A lot of residents in the apartment building, though, hate it. And also not just in the building, but in the area itself, there were a couple different quotes from people just calling it an eyesore and that they don't like having it on their property because also now it kind of blocks a view in the building. I don't know, maybe that was just like one negative Nancy or something like that.

I personally have no idea, I have no idea how I'd react to that, honestly. I just find it funny that he also owns an apartment in that building.

Also, just to shock you, "Baby Bean" isn't the name he went with to name it. It actually hasn't been named yet. There's a naming ceremony that's scheduled for the spring, so who knows?

I just want to make sure that I cast my vote for "Baby Bean" to be the official name for this artwork, just FYI, because I know Anish Kapoor listens to this. So, anywho.

I think that'll do it for this episode of Buy Amara. Be sure to like and subscribe if you enjoy the show. Please make sure to like it or give it a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

It genuinely helps when you do stuff like that, so just know it's very much appreciated. I love you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you just listening to me in general, so thank you.

And oh, I also I still have my Patreon, so if you want to partake in festivities, I guess, I don't know. I get weird when I talk about Patreon, it just feels weird to me. But yeah, that exists, and I'm Amara Andrew, and never stop creating.