Slow Burn - Decoder Ring: The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained
Decoder Ring
Slate Podcasts
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ 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.
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Decoder Ring is now available on YouTube. Listen here: http://y2u.be/D8cLqWAffJ8
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're looking for a new podcast, might I recommend our podcast? |
| 0:09.4 | Hi, I'm Gabe Dunn, and I'm Allison Raskin. |
| 0:12.5 | We have a weekly show called Just Between Us where we explore every kind of topic out |
| 0:17.4 | there, from mental health to sexuality, to animal behavior, to science. |
| 0:24.7 | We love to interview fascinating people about their various expertise. |
| 0:29.0 | We also answer listener questions and play a very silly game called hypotheticals. |
| 0:34.4 | You're not going to want to miss it, it's unhinged. |
| 0:37.3 | And if you don't want to trust our word for it because it's our show, you should know |
| 0:40.7 | that the IHAR podcast awards nominated us for Best Ensemble for 2023. |
| 0:47.0 | That means that we are good at our jobs. |
| 0:49.6 | Or we have good chemistry? |
| 0:51.6 | Ooh, so check out Just Between Us every Wednesday. |
| 1:04.1 | A couple of years ago, Lizzie Peabody, the host of the Smithsonian's podcast Side Door, |
| 1:09.9 | received a suggestion. |
| 1:11.7 | She should do an episode about the artist, Leroy Nieman. |
| 1:15.4 | Basically, this guy was really foundational to representing American pop culture during |
| 1:20.6 | this very specific era. |
| 1:23.0 | In the 1970s, Leroy Nieman was one of the most popular painters in America. |
| 1:27.8 | He sported a giant, drooping mustache and made colorful, kinetic images of famous musicians |
| 1:33.5 | and athletes. |
| 1:35.2 | The people that love my paintings, those spectators are not viewers. |
| 1:39.6 | They look at it for the experience and the re-experience for themselves. |
... |
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