Digital doings: From Shakers to Conquistadors
Teuraheimata a Potoru by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), 1891. Photograph courtesy of Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York. Those who have been watching this space, as the saying goes, will know that a new Curious Objects season has been in the works for some time. Happily, by the time you’re reading this, that season will be available for your delectation. It is the first to make full use of the format that we test-drove last January in the “Once Upon a Bowl” episode—multiple guests, musical interludes, and emphasis on the storytelling chops of host Benjamin Miller. Three auditory investigations are on tap, each broken into multiple parts. One is a deep dive into the curious case of the painting that graced ANTIQUES’ September/ October cover: Bélizaire and the Frey Children. Miller sits down with the painting’s owner—and its primary advocate— Jeremy Simien, as well as scholars, collectors, and other experts in the field involved with the painting’s journey from museum castoff to much-fêted cipher for the antebellum South, and attempts to nail down why its eponymous figure was forgotten for so long. Also on tap are Jill Newhouse, who’s bringing a new Tahiti picture by Gauguin to market, and an exploration of what we might call the Shakers’ three Fs: “Feminism” (applied broadly), Furniture, and a Future that was seemingly snuffed out by celibacy and the changing social and economic pressures of the nineteenth century. Bélizaire and the Frey Children, attributed to Jacques Amans (1801–1888), c. 1837. Collection of Jeremy K. Simien; photograph by Selina McKane. We’re very proud of what we’ve come up with, and hope you’ll check it out. As always, tune in to Curious Objects on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or navigate to ANTIQUES’ website and select the “Podcast” tab. Marching triumphantly into