Decoder Ring: The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We bring you a special episode from Sidedoor, a podcast about the treasures that fill the vaults of the Smithsonian. This story is inspired by “Big Band,” a defining work by the painter LeRoy Neiman. Neiman was a character, a cultural gadfly and an omnipresent artist who sat for decades right at the nexus of professional success, cultural ubiquity, and critical disregard. What made him so popular? What made him so disdained? And what can we learn from how he resolved this dissonance? Sidedoor is produced by the Smithsonian with PRX. The Sidedoor podcast team is Justin O'Neill, James Morrison, Stephanie De Leon Tzic, Ann Conanan, Caitlin Shaffer, Tami O'Neill, Jess Sadeq, Lara Koch, and Sharon Bryant. The show is mixed by Tarek Fouda and the theme song and episode music are by Breakmaster Cylinder. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director. Special thanks to Joel Meyer, the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, especially Tara Zabor, Dan Duray, Heather Long, and Janet Neiman. Also thank you to the team at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History: Stephanie Johnson, Ken Kimery, Theo Gonzalvez, Eric Jentsch, John Troutman, Krystal Klingenberg, Valeska Hilbig, and Laura Duff. Thank you to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for contributing music for this episode, and also to the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, sign up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Decoder Ring is now available on YouTube. Listen here: http://y2u.be/D8cLqWAffJ8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, everybody, it's Tim Heidecker, you know me, Tim and Eric Bridesmaids, and Fantastic Four.
0:05.0	I'd like to personally invite you to listen to Office Hours Live with me and my co-hosts DJ Doug Pound.
0:11.0	Hello.
0:12.0	And Vic Berger.
0:13.0	Howdy.
0:14.0	Every week we bring you laugh fun games and lots of other surprises.
0:16.0	It's live.
0:17.0	We take your Zoom calls.
0:18.0	We love having fun.
0:19.0	Excuse me.
0:20.0	That song's...
0:21.0	Vic said something.
0:22.0	You said music.
0:23.0	I like having fun.
0:24.0	I like to laugh.
0:26.0	I like to meet people who can make me laugh.
0:29.0	Please subscribe.
0:31.0	No.
0:59.0	Zeroineemon was one of the most popular painters in America.
1:02.0	He sported a giant, drooping mustache and made colorful kinetic images of famous musicians and athletes.
1:09.0	The people that love my paintings, those spectators are not viewers.
1:14.0	They look at it for the experience and the re-experience for themselves.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.