The lovely Alice Gribbin joins me for a conversation about the mystery of inspiration, why intellectualizing art is a bad idea, the visceral encounter with the artwork, why the only realm where the gods are still active is art, US versus UK artists, our search for transcendence, and - as always - hope. Hope you enjoy!

You can read the transcript of our conversation here.

Important Links:

• Notes of an Aesthete; Alice’s Substack
• Alice’s X Profile

Show Notes:

(0:00:00) Guest Introduction

(0:04:06) Hope is Embedded in Every Act of Artistic Creation

(0:07:23) The Cold War's Intense Artistic Energy

(0:13:12) The Cultural Impact of Mad Men

(0:20:36) An Artist's Form-Content Fit

(0:24:38) Why We Need Hubris Back in the Humanities

(0:29:40) The Gods Are Still Present—But Only in Art

(0:40:21) The Decay of Gatekeepers

(0:46:03) The Internet as Research Tool

(0:51:06) Art is a Visceral Encounter, Not Instagram Content

(1:20:23) Notions of Great Art and the Canon

Books, Essays & References Mentioned:

• Barnett Newman's essays on American painting
• Against Interpretation; by Susan Sontag
• Mad Men (TV series created by Matt Weiner)
• T.S. Eliot on art and inspiration
• The Pound Era; by Hugh Kenner
• Wolf Hall; by Hilary Mantel
• Agnes Martin's paintings
• Aby Warburg and pathos formulae
• Delacroix as proto-modernist
• John Singer Sargent exhibition at the Met
• Internet Archive as research resource
• "Good Politics Produce Bad Art" (Tablet essay)
• "We're a Niche. We just didn't know" (Interintellect founding essay)