The Talisman and the Temple

Book Review: Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin

A vivid and morally complex portrait of Paul Gauguin, Wild Thing explores how one of modern art’s most influential painters transformed color and artistic expression while living a deeply controversial life. Sue Prideaux balances scandal, colonialism, genius, and artistic innovation in a biography that refuses easy judgments about art and the artist behind it.

Goya and the Darkness of Enlightenment

A sleeping man collapses at his desk as owls and bats gather behind him. In 1799, Francisco Goya created an image that still feels disturbingly modern. Was The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters a warning about society, or a glimpse into the terrifying darkness lurking inside Goya’s own mind?

Whispers Between the Pages

A century-old book filled with the voices of the dead… and the markings of the living. Early copies of Spoon River Anthology reveal something unsettling: readers treating fiction as truth, leaving behind clues, accusations, and memories. What were they trying to say—and who were they speaking to?

The Talisman and the Temple

Some paintings show you the world. Others seem to shape it. In a small Paris studio, a group of young artists began treating art less like representation and more like belief. What started as experiment became ritual, and one modest painting turned into something closer to an object of power.

The Fort Worth Circle—Texas Modernists You Should Know

Did you know that some of the most influential modernist art in Texas didn’t come from New York or Paris—but from Fort Worth? In the 1940s and ’50s, a small, tight-knit group of artists, known as the Fort Worth Circle, quietly reshaped what art could look like in the region and beyond. From Veronica Helfensteller’s thoughtful abstractions to Kelly Fearing’s imaginative explorations, these artists embraced experimentation and created a uniquely Texan modernism. In this episode, we explore their stories, their creative dialogue with Dallas Regionalism, and the lasting impact of their work on Texas’ art scene today.