Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal

Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History Reviews

• 
  Christina Dudley

  If you're an art history fan, this collection of quirky stories is pretty delightful. I especially enjoyed the chapters on Norman Rockwell, the Mona Lisa, van Gogh, and Hieronymous Bosch. Less interesting were the folks I'd never heard of and whose art didn't personally appeal to me.
  
  You have to stay pretty close to your computer while you read this because you'll constantly be Googling works, and it's pretty hard to see on a phone screen. So if you're the type of person who hates to consult maps, family trees, or Wikipedia while you read--well, what are you doing anyhow, reading art history in the first place?
• 
  Holly

  For someone who has two degrees in art history, was it even a question that I wouldn't like this book? The podcast must be pretty great if this is based off of it. You'll find something here for both art history novices and experts. I hope we see some reattribution one day for female artists Hilma af Klint (first abstract painting) and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (for Fountain, historically attributed to Duchamp).
• 
  James P.

  Although I enjoyed the writer’s take on the subject matter, I found myself getting impatient with this book. Part of my response, I guess, is due to the few chapters in the middle of the book titled The Slightly Odd.
  
  I’m not a big fan of stories about sleuthing that are too complicated. Plus, if all the information about a mystery (is the Mona Lisa in the Louvre real?) adds up to pages and pages of alternate theories and dead ends, it’s frustrating. Just summarize, please.
  
  Anyway, that objection aside, it was cool to read a fun book written in a breezy style about art. The stories are unusual, and I appreciated that. It reminded me that art needn’t always be treated with effete attitudes and kid gloves. Gimme a break. When it comes down to it, great art is of the earth. And, the really great stuff is stuff that moves us.
  
• 
  Alicia

  I was psyched for this seeing others' reviews of it and because I'm not "artsy" like that which is what Dasal talks about but I had put off sitting down to read it a few times and then when I started, I realized it still was not for me.
  
  I think her voice might work for her podcast and how she approaches it there, but it didn't translate for me into print with this book. There's still too much art-splaining because/in the middle/after these "unexpected, slightly odd, and strangely wonderful" stories that I was frustrated and annoyed. I wanted her to get to the stories, get to the point.
  
  So it was a fail for me. Maybe I needed a different headspace but I really just think it wasn't going to work for me in this format. Or maybe I should try an audiobook version? Either way, a dud for me.
• 
  Maggie Clarke

  You don’t have to love art to love this book, the stories and theories are fascinating on their own! Artists moonlighting as murderers and painters who claim that ghosts are possessing them, just all around fun read!
• 
  Rachel (Kalanadi)

  3.5 stars
• 
  Horatio

  This is a compilation of several episodes of Jennifer Dasal's podcast, Artcurious, and as such, wasn't really a book about art, but more a compilation of interesting stories of various artists and artworks. It didn't actually touch much on the technical aspects of these artworks, which I guess would've made sense in a podcast, as people want something engaging and interesting to listen to, rather than more academic. However, I felt like this didn't translate particularly well into book-form, as I wish that it were more rigorous and technical. In essence, it felt more like a sharing of fun facts without actually getting into what made these artworks and artists renowned or famous (some chapters were more analytical, though, based on the subject matter). As such, I felt like this book was made to lure people who didn't care much for art (in a very click-bait, attention grabbing style) by not talking about art, but instead discussing the interesting conspiracy theories and gossip in the art world.
  
  An example of this was her chapter on the Mona Lisa and its history of being stolen. She briefly talks about the work itself, and only partially introduces the reader to the painting by vaguely talking about what makes it a masterpiece. Instead, she chooses to focus on the various theories about why and how it was stolen, which is interesting in itself, but not really why I chose to read this book (I would have much preferred if she had focused on why the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece).
  
  While I enjoyed some of the pieces in this book (I thought that the essay on Norman Rockwell and his paintings of the Americana was brilliant), I also wish that many were more technical, which is also due to my expectations of the book. But I was clearly not the desired target audience, so I guess that's expected.
• 
  Gina Parrish

  I had never heard of the ArtCurious podcast, but I find art history fascinating and hoped to learn a few things from this book. Unfortunately, I would not recommend it. It had lots of potential, particularly with regard to content, but that’s about it.
  
  My biggest gripe was with the author’s voice and long-windedness. I can’t believe her editor let her get away with so much. It feels like reading one long blog post where the writer needs to hit a certain word count for the sake of search engine optimization. She has no concept of being concise and manages to go on and on without adding substance. Honestly, I skimmed parts of it.
  
  With regard to voice, she includes her own plucky commentary alongside the content, but it does not add value to the book. It feels like she is trying to make the content more approachable, or maybe she is insecure about whether or not her readers will really care about what she’s writing, but in any case it takes impact away from the actual art history. (Particularly when she ends big revelations with “Gross!” Or “Sorry!” Or “Pun intended!” in parentheses.)
  
  I can see the whole thing working as a podcast, but it needed to be re-envisioned to be a book. It could have worked with more (better quality) pictures, and about half the amount of words. It’s too bad because I am the perfect audience for this book as someone who did not study art history but has always found it fascinating.
• 
  Snow

  I thought the various stories were really interesting and enjoyed the humor of the book. My only real complaint is the constant mentioning of artwork without showing it, which tended to take me out of the book as i’d usually end up trying to find it, but I’m not sure if there’s a cost factor with that. Thanks to this book, I’ll most likely be keeping my eye out for more art history books.
• 
  Shawn Singh

  # The Book in 3(ish) Sentences
  
  1. This book is all about stories; it highlights some unexpected, odd, and wonderful stories in the art world.
  2. This book places artists within a certain cultural, historical or experiential framework. It helps color some of the lives of artists that is often not shown in an exhibit or museum.
  3. This book tries to convince the reader that Art isn’t boring and is, in fact, filled stories about why the artist creates what they do.
  
  # Impressions
  
  - I generally favor reading books that give me a more expansive look into a new topic, but this one was more narrow in its scope. Despite this, I enjoyed the book, and felt that focusing on a limited set of 12 stories made the book easier to digest. Given the hodgepodge collection of stories, there wasn’t an overall theme or focus tying them together. Some were more intriguing than others for me; I especially enjoyed the chapters on Monet, Van Gogh, Salvador Mundi. The book is dispersed with smaller anecdotes all throughout the book that relate in some way to the content of the chapter. Those felt a bit disruptive, but there were enough interesting stories in between that caught my attention that I’m willing to look past the disruption to flow they cause. Overall, I like that upon finishing the book, I feel a greater sense of appreciation of the artwork and appreciate the added details I now have about the lives behind the artists.
  
  # Who Should Read It?
  
  - People without a strong background in art or art history but nevertheless have an interest should read this book. It’s very accessible and written in a down-to-earth voice that is easy to follow along.
  
  # How the Book Changed Me
  
  - The book will shine most the next time I go to an art museum. I love the idea of being able to build connections with what I read with the artwork I see myself in-person. In this sense, the book has given me more confidence to walk into a museum and better understand what these artists where thinking or what their historical context was when they made their artwork.
  
  # Top 3 Quotes
  
  1. For me, the enduring legacy of Impressionism comes down to two things. First is these artists’ commitment to modernity, of finding worthy subject matter in a world that is still so familiar to us today: a suburban dinner party, a dimly lit city street, a crowded restaurant. Impressionism pulls us in because we can see our own lives in it, as if we’re the ones enjoying our leisure time in the company of friends, raising a glass of wine. We, as modern people in a modern world, are the subjects. Second, Impressionism—for one of the first times in art history— was about valuing the subjective point of view about things that seem like they should be objective: light, color, shadow.
  
  2. Art is often taken sooo seriously. But artists have been having fun —for the sake of fun!—for centuries…My favorite example is Marcel Duchamp’s irreverent L.H.O.O.Q. (1919, Centre Pompidou, Paris; reproductions elsewhere), one of the artist’s signature “ready- mades,” which are detailed in chapter 11…When pronounced in French, the letters sound similar to the phrase “Elle a chaud au cul,” which roughly translates, in English, to “She has a hot ass.”
  
  3. When asked by Gene Swenson, an art critic for ARTnews, to define Pop Art, Warhol simply replied, “It’s liking things.”
• 
  Mandy

  This fantastic book would get 5 stars from me were it not for the fact that next to none of the artworks mentioned therein is accompanied by a picture of said art work. Such a weird and nonsensical choice. Still well worth reading.
• 
  Jake Hattis

  An easy read. There are two things that this book makes me want to do. The first is look at more art, because it is fascinating. The second is to read more about Art History. This book feels like a great introduction to the color that is art history for those who don't know where to start.
• 
  Hannah

  This book was incredibly fun while still touching on some of the most important art historical debates today. My one qualm was the lack of pictures! Show me the wacky and weird paintings!
• 
  Lindsay

  This is how to take art history and make it interesting to everyone. We've got conspiracy theories, murder, fraud, gender, and much more. A fun read that isn't all fluff.
• 
  Brenden Gallagher

  I did not enjoy this book, and so I will keep it brief. "Artcurious" feels like a group of podcast episodes strung together more than it does a full text. It suffers from a lot of the superficial historical problems seen in other projects of the same ilk. The underresearched chapters (really episodes) fall back on easy "Hidden Figures" or "True Crime" style narratives that raise a lot of questions without having the answers to back them up. Though some chapters are somewhat compelling, chapters like the one on Jack the Ripper verge on conspiratorial hackery. While the skin-deep attention to detail might fly for patreon subscribers, I would be upset if I paid the sticker price for this book instead of borrowing it from the library. Podcasting is still a nascent form and this book shows the problems therein when it comes to doing history on a fast and breezy basis. Thumbs down.
• 
  Alison Felice

  Not quite finished with the book, but these are my thoughts so far...
  I may be an artist, but art history was never my forte my experience with art history has been limited to learning about the renaissance masters and of ancient artworks that are not as relevant to me as some more contemporary art might be. I’m other words, art history was always boring. This book, however, has managed to make art history fun and entertaining. From theories of the true identity of Jack the Ripper to artists trading their artist services for dead bodies to dissect to learn anatomy for future artworks, this book is full of interesting and odd stories of various artists.
  
  If I had to critique anything it would be that o wish there was more artwork in the book. There are several times where the author alludes to various artworks by title, but there wasn’t an image to go with the book. I would have to pause, google the artwork, then go back to the book - it slowed me down. I also think the book could have benefitted from colored images of the artwork vs. black and white that is currently pictured. Some of the artwork is kind of hard to see/understand because the images are in black and white.
  
  Other than that, I am thoroughly enjoying this book and I look forward to listening to the podcasts from the author 👍
• 
  Rachael Kosinski

  As an art curator/historian, this was a very fun read. I learned a lot of new things, and got to get reacquainted with a lot of my favorite artists, and also got ready to brawl on a lot of aspects that I had wrongly assumed were more or less 'fact' in art history circles. But you know what they say about assuming things. The thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the amount of ink given to the whole idea of Walter Sickert being Jack the Ripper and all the hullabaloo Patricia Cornwell did. When I learned about this 'theory' in early undergrad, my professor barely gave her the time of day, and only did so with the most base vehemence. Art historians--at least the ones I know and myself included--would probably not hesitate to fight Cornwell if they ever saw her on the street, for buying up a ton of primary sources of Sickert's and using them for DNA testing that didn't even pan out in her favor. Also the bit about Michelangelo drawing women as buff men because he believed in girl power didn't quite sit amazingly with me--I think he just wasn't interested in drawing women or using female models. There were a couple tiny other things, but otherwise this was incredibly fun and led to a lot of enthusiastic conversations!
• 
  Steph F

  After committing to start reading regularly, I grabbed this book at random in the bookstore when I went for something unrelated. I have not yet listened to the podcast, but the title grabbed me. I was surprised to find the writing and subject matter presented in such an entertaining way. While art history buffs may already know many of these stories, I think most people would pick up really amusing and interesting things they had no idea about famous artworks, artists, and their circles. I do agree with others that plates or more pictures of the artworks would make it easier to stay 'in the book,' as I was frequently looking up people and artworks. Aside from that, I truly loved this book and would recommend it even to my friends who might not be particularly interested specifically in art history, as I think this is a captivating book that might pique the interests of anyone who simply enjoys offbeat stories from history.
• 
  Kristen DeCain

  This is a fun and easy nonfiction read, written by a former NCMA curator (still based in Raleigh!) and current host of the Artcurious podcast. The stories here, the majority of which I'd never heard before, are well-researched and endlessly entertaining. Her writing is very accessible and generally light and humorous. She did an excellent job presenting the facts alongside unproven but intriguing (and sometimes wacky) theories as well as her own thoughts and opinions. I learned a lot! Hard to narrow down my favorite chapters, but probably the ones on the possibility of Walter Sickert being Jack the Ripper, the multiple thefts and forgeries of the Mona Lisa, the butt song from the Hell panel of Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven's possible involvement in the creation of Duchamp's Fountain. If you have even a passing interest in art history you will probably enjoy this one.
• 
  Passports & Books

  Dasal begins the book with why art isn't always boring and shares her love to meet "committed non-art types" as much as meeting fellow art lovers. She recognizes the "what's the big deal anyway?" moments or that alienating feeling for lack of exposure and fear that one might not be able to understand art.
  
  The book explores a wide range of artists from Leonardo Da Vinci of the High Renaissance to Andy Warhol in recent times. Dasal shares plenty of backstories, mysteries, thefts, murders and quirks behind well-known artists who were also, eccentric geniuses, scientists, inventors and much more. And I found myself enjoying these unexpected, slightly off and strangely wonderful backstories which were entertaining and educational. And, Dasal's humorous writing style helps with learning art history whilst having fun.
• 
  Wendy

  I chanced upon ArtCurious podcast on Spotify and was hooked immediately with the exciting details less heard of in art history. This book draws the essence from the podcast and tells the stories of wonderful masters like Monet (a rebel in his time), Vincent Van Gogh (did he commit suicide or was he murdered?), Andy Warhol (more like Andy WarHOARD) and more. I love this book but surprisingly for a visual person, I preferred the podcast instead. The slight differences between these two mediums is that the book includes nuggets of info in each chapter related to the topic or artist of interest that wasn’t found in the podcast.
  
  It was only through getting in touch with this book/podcast, that I find some joy in learning about art history. If anyone thought the same as me previously, that art history is dry and boring, this book will change your mind.
• 
  Leslie Nettleton

  I read this as part of a large, online book club. I think it was a good book club choice, but really wasn't able to participate in the club because I couldn't afford to buy the book, and I had to wait over two months in order to check it out from the library. For me, much of the book was familiar, as I've taken a few art history classes and was already familiar with much of it--but I still learned stuff. My favorite chapter turned out to be: Sentimental, Cheesy, and... Socially Conscious (Norman Rockwell)-and I enjoyed reading the part about the Salvator Mundi---which was interesting- But I felt disconnected to much of the rest of it. I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to participate in the book club discussions!