Welcome to our first lockdown podcast! And forgive us for our imperfect audio sins, but boy do we have a bumper catch up on our hands. We kick off with some virtual viewing reviews: Picasso on Paper, Andy Warhol at the Tate Modern, Quentin Blake at Hastings Contemporary, Google Arts and Culture Tours, and the Virtual Viewing Rooms at Frieze New York.

And to feed the lockdown boredom, we have a feast of documentary suggestions, and some creative inspiration courtesy of the The Artist Support Pledge and The Isolation Art School.

Believe it or not, but there are news stories in the art world that have nothing to do with Covid-19, and we found two of them. We discuss the controversial plans to demolish the buildings that host Picasso's murals in Oslo, and reviews of the 2020 BP Portrait Award winner and why people fixate on her label as a 'self taught' artist.

This episode's Artist Focus is war artist Paul Nash. Best known for his striking modernist landscapes of the trenches, Nash was an official war artist in both World Wars. We discuss the changes in his works between the two wars, how witnessing death and destruction influenced his work, and his inter-war experimentation in Surrealism.

SHOW NOTES
Picasso on Paper at the Royal Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOY6GbV9Ks
Andy Warhol at the Tate Modern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjgAd6Z-dd0
Quentin Blake ‘We live in worrying times’ at Hastings Contemporary: https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/exhibition/quentin-blake-we-live-in-worrying-times/
Google Arts and Culture Tours: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/10-top-museums-you-can-explore-right-here-right-now/igKSKBBnEBSGKg
The Virtual Viewing Room at Frieze New York: https://frieze.com/fairs/frieze-viewing-room
Becoming Matisse documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hqt7
Lee Miller - A Life on the Front Line documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hy2p
The Artist Support Pledge: visit @artistsupportpledge on Instagram
The Isolation Art School: visit @isolationartschool on Instagram
Grayson's Art Club on Channel 4: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/graysons-art-club
The Cel del Nord Virtual Residency: https://celdelnord.com/virtual-residency
Picasso's Murals in Oslo are at the Centre of a Major Controversy: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/picasso-murals-oslo-major-controversy
Jiab Prachakul - Will Gompertz reviews BP Portrait Award Winner: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52592969
Paul Nash, The Landscape of Modernism, film: https://henitalks.com/talks/paul-nash-the-landscape-of-modernism/
Review: Propaganda, Power and Persuasion at the British Library: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/exhibition-review-propaganda-power-and-persuasion-british-library-london-8632201.html