Category: Art History

Amara Andrew

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11.20.22

Google is Releasing an AI-Generated Art App!

Google hasn’t yet confirmed when the Wonder app will be released. I’m curious, though, if there’s a big enough need for it. Is this app actually something you would want?

Transcript

Within the last year, you may have heard about AI-generated art. Google just announced they’re launching a new app called Wonder to create AI-generated artwork.

They have a few different key features in this app, so it’s going to be the same thing where you can type a prompt into their prompt area.

Not only are they doing that, but they’re also, apparently, building cities with it’s City Dream feature. And then you can also create cartoon monsters with its Wobble feature.

There isn’t a release date for the app yet. It was just announced. I’ll let you know as soon as I know!

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Google is Releasing an AI-Generated Art App!
Amara Andrew

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11.18.22

Is AI-Generated Art Free from Copyright? 🤔

This is going to be a very tricky copyright case because whatever’s decided will set the precedent for how content creators get paid for their work!

Transcript

So, within the last year, you may have heard about AI-generated art, especially with OpenAI’s platform, DALL-E.

AI image generators scrape publicly available pictures across the web to train their algorithm. These images that are sampled are typically copyrighted works that come from a variety of websites, most namely Getty Images.

Getty Images actually just banned AI-generated art due to these copyright issues. So, where the issue comes from is that there is no credit or compensation for content creators who make these original images.

Like I said, Getty is banning AI-generated artwork. They’re using the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, which is a project that was just formed in February 2021 by Adobe, Sony, BBC, Microsoft, Twitter, and a bunch of other companies, in order to filter out AI-generated content.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Is AI-Generated Art Free from Copyright? 🤔
Amara Andrew

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11.16.22

$77 million Museum Cover-up!

How does a museum not have knowledge or at least footage of the people who broke over $77 million worth of priceless artifacts?!

Transcript

Imagine breaking about $77 million worth of stuff that isn’t yours.

This is a really strange kind of story. Over the past 18 months, a bowl, a teacup, and a plate from the Ming and Qing dynasties were broken in 3 separate incidences at Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.

The director of the museum has been accused of instructing the staff to cover up the incidences and to treat all paper work of these as classified. They deny covering things up. They just say it’s kind of been a “process.”

What’s also sketchy about this, though, is that even though they’ve allegedly checked all their CCTV footage, they were unable to idenitfy who was responsible for 2 out of the three accidents.

They were able to identify who was responsible for one incident, though!

It was apparently a senior staff member who placed an artifact on a 3-foot high desk and it fell off of it. So, there’s one mystery solved!

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: $77 million Museum Cover-up!
Amara Andrew

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11.16.22

Ancient Egyptian tattoos/Secret ancient tunnel/4,000-year-old petroglyph vandals/Art spending high!

By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.

This week, we’re looking at a pair of ancient Egyptian mummies with mysterious tattoos; a secret underground ancient tunnel; 4,000-year-old petroglyphs that were vandalized; and art spending is at an all new high!

🎧 Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT

For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!

Who is Amara Andrew?

Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.

Read More: Ancient Egyptian tattoos/Secret ancient tunnel/4,000-year-old petroglyph vandals/Art spending high!
Amara Andrew

•

11.15.22

Fake Vermeer Painting: Update! 😱

I have an update to the fake Vermeer painting that I covered a few weeks ago! 🎨🖼️

Transcript

So, in Episode 5, we talked about a fake Vermeer painting. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. figured out that the painting, “Girl with a Flute,” that’s in their collection wasn’t actually painted by Vermeer.

They used formal analysis, which I’ve talked about before in some of my TikToks, where they looked at the physical, visual attributes of the artwork in question.

That is how they were able to identify that this painting may not have been painted by Vermeer. There are some sceptics, though!

So, even though the National Gallery of Art stated that they don’t believe this was painted by Vermeer, the Rijksmuseum stated that they believe this is inconclusive.

The director of the Rijksmuseum stated that because Vermeer took so many different approaches in his career, we shouldn’t rule out that this was painted by Vermeer.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Fake Vermeer Painting: Update! 😱
Amara Andrew

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11.14.22

Why are people protesting climate change with famous artworks?!

Why are people protesting climate change using famous artworks? 🤔 Sure, your organization’s name ends up in headlines, but, beyond that, what good is this doing for your cause? And, more importantly, how does this help the environment?

Transcript

There have been a lot of activist protests in art museums lately. By the time this episode comes out, there will probably be like 10 others in this time span…

…but why art museums?

This is a question that a group of museum directors tried to figure out or at least have a discussion about. So, Weinberg, from the Whitney Museum responded, “It’s people putting themselves on a stage in order to bring attention to something. But you have to ask, does this really change anything? Does this really open up a question? And, also, is it an understanding of how art functions even in its time?”

I think there are different ways to go about this. You’re making more work for the people who are not executives at these museums. People have to clean these up. These are the workers who are getting paid $15 an hour or something that have to deal with this.

It’s worked because we’re talking about this, but, otherwise, I don’t know if it’s actually going to be successful in the long-run to get their message across.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Why are people protesting climate change with famous artworks?!
Amara Andrew

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11.11.22

Mysterious 17th century painting identified!

A mysterious 17th century painting from the Sursock Palace was damaged in an explosion in Beirut. It has now been identified as a work created by Italian Baroque artist, Artemisia Gentileschi!

Transcript

In August 2020, there was a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. This explosion killed 145 people and injured thousands.

In addition to the loss of life, many, many buildings were damaged, including the Sursock Palace and Museum, which is the building we’re talking about today.

Much of the palace was destroyed in this explosion and, amongst the wreckage, was this 17th century mystery painting. This piece had extensive damage, but this actually worked out because this was sent to be restored at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

When restoration experts at the Getty were working on it, they were like, “Holy shit, this was made by Artemisia Gentileschi!”

This particular painting depicts the Myth of Omphale and Hercules.

It’s supposed to take until 2024 to complete the restoration. Once it’s finished, though, it’ll be exhibited at the Getty and will hang near another recently identified Gentileschi work titled, “Lucretia.”

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Mysterious 17th century painting identified!
Amara Andrew

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11.10.22

The tomb of Santa Claus has been found!

The tomb of Santa Claus was allegedly just found in Demre, Turkey!! That isn’t the only surprise that archaeologists found on this site, though!

Transcript

It’s a little early in the season, but we’re going to talk about Santa Claus, specifically the guy who inspired Santa Claus.

Saint Nicholas was an actual person. He was an early Christian bishop who lived between 270-343 CE.

The reason why we’re talking about Santa Claus is because of the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey.

It’s believed an empty tomb that was found within the church during excavation work is St. Nicholas’ original resting place. They also found these really beautiful Byzantine mosaic floors.

There was an old church on this site originally that’s from the 3rd century CE, Byzantine era church. This spot, however, flooded because of rising sea levels sometime during the Middle Ages, so they built this other church on top of the flooded one.

Now, archaeologists are excavating in this 3rd century church, so they’ve found this tomb and also these Byzantine mosaic floors.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: The tomb of Santa Claus has been found!
Amara Andrew

•

11.09.22

$77 million museum cover up // How you can buy the U.S. Constitution // Is AI-Generated art free from copyright? // A Piet Mondrian that’s been upside down for over 70 years

By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.

This week, we’re looking at a $77 million museum cover up, how you can buy the U.S. Constitution, is AI-generated art free from copyright?, and an upside down Piet Mondrian.

🎧 Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT

For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!

Who is Amara Andrew?

Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.

Read More: $77 million museum cover up // How you can buy the U.S. Constitution // Is AI-Generated art free from copyright? // A Piet Mondrian that’s been upside down for over 70 years
Amara Andrew

•

11.08.22

Missing Cubist painting hidden in plain sight!

On the back of Fernand Léger’s “Bastille Day” is a painting that’s been believed to have been missing for over 100 years!

Transcript

This is a painting by Fernand Léger. It was believed to have been lost for the last 100 years. It’s been found, but not how you might think!

It’s believed that an unnamed piece from his “Smoke over the Rooftops” series was discovered on the back of “Bastille Day” that he painted in late 1912.

“Bastille Day” was sold to the Dutch Triton Foundation in 1999 and they own it now.

In 2016, they had restoration work done to “Bastille Day” and, apparently, restorers noticed something strange on the back. They had to remove a bunch of white-grey material as well as a backing board.

When they peeled the backing board off, they noticed that there were distinctive painted forms and colors, depicting billowing smoke.

This newly discovered painting is going to be displayed at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands from November 19, 2022 – April 2, 2023.

For the first time in its history, it’s going to be placed in a glass cabinet so you can see the paintings on either side!

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Read More: Missing Cubist painting hidden in plain sight!