Why do some museum exhibitions achieve legendary status? Why are some shows still talked and thought about long after they are over? From Tutankhamen (1972) to Francis Bacon (1988), from the Surrealists exhibition (1923) to Sensation (1997), in every episode I discuss a show that changed everything with an expert.
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In this episode, Malika Browne talks to John-Paul Stonard about the subject of his new book, The Worst Exhibition in the World, Degenerate Art, 1937 (Old Street, 2026) Organised in three weeks at Adolf Hitler’s instigation, the exhibition became one of the most visited exhibitions of all time, and it has gone down in history as one of the most notorious and ironic shows ever. A must-listen for anyone interested in Weimar Germany, German art, modern art, or just early 20th century history!
This episode has been generously supported by Old Street Publishing. Visit Www.oldstreetpublishing.co.uk to learn more about their bestselling Shortest History books, and their many other titles.
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30 Apr 2026
S3:E5 Artists Aid Russia, London 1942
In this episode Malika Browne talks to curator and art historian Dr Alison Smith, head of collections at the Wallace Collection, about the Wallace’s biggest exhibition ever, in 1942. It was organised by Clementine Churchill and the wife of the Russian Ambassador to London, Agnia Maisky. It was one of several “solidarity exhibitions” that took place in Britain during WW2. A must-listen for anyone interested in art, WW2, the Churchills, Russia - and fans of the Wallace Collection!
Further Reading:
The Maisky Diaries by Ivan Maisky
The extraordinary wartime diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London during WW2
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30 Mar 2026
S3:E4 Constantinople in Olympia, London 1893
Andrew’s novel: The Adventure of the Second Wife is published by Even Keel Press.
https://www.cornucopia.net/store/books/the-adventure-of-the-second-wife/ (https://www.cornucopia.net/store/books/the-adventure-of-the-second-wife/)
This is a Froody Music production.
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23 Jan 2026
S3:E3 Lutyens, The Work of the English Architect
In this episode Malika Browne talks to former Country Life editor, architectural writer and podcaster Clive Aslet, about the Edwin Lutyens exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1981. The exhibition was huge, immersive, and led to a reappraisal of Sir Edwin Lutyens as a great English architect. Its success also led to the founding of the Lutyens Trust.
www.lutyenstrust.org.uk
www.lutyenstrustamerica.com (https://lutyenstrustamerica.com/)
Further Reading:
Sir Edwin Lutyens: Britain’s Greatest Architect? By Clive Aslet. Triglyph Books 2024
Further Listening:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0r4BTNzAzBUazclUALqqKa?si=otC85t8WRFGvb3zkLePTHA (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0r4BTNzAzBUazclUALqqKa?si=otC85t8WRFGvb3zkLePTHA)
This is a www.froodymusic.com production, recorded and edited by Martin Lumsden
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26 Nov 2025
S3:E2 Jim Dine: London 1966
Note: explicit content!
In this episode, Malika Browne talks to Harriet Vyner, co-founder of Cheerio Publishing and author of Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser, about an exhibition at the Robert Fraser Gallery in Duke Street, London in 1966. The show was of prints by Jim Dine, on which he collaborated with Eduardo Paolozzi, and it was shut down by the police on grounds of obscenity. A must-listen for anyone interested in Swinging London, in the art world, and in the fascinating figure of Robert Fraser.
This episode has been generously supported by Cheerio Publishing. Visit Www.cheeriopublishing.com to learn more about their publications and films.
#RobertFraser #JimDine #EduardoPaolozzi #MichaelCooper #BrianRobertson #RolandPenrose #BrianClarke #RollingStones #MickJagger #JohnLennon #ColinSelf #RichardHamilton
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16 Sept 2025
S3: E1: Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900
In this episode Malika Browne talks to writer and broadcaster Muriel Zagha about the spectacular Exposition Universelle that transformed Paris in 1900, and discusses how it created the image of Paris as the City of Lights. A must-listen for anyone who loves Paris, who is interested in French culture, and anyone who is fascinated by world expos!
Further Reading:
Paul Morand, 1900
Albert Robida, Le Vingtième Siècle (1883), La Guerre au Vingtième Siècle (1887), Le Vingtième Siècle (la Vie électrique) (1890)
Watch:
Colourised footage of the Trottoir Roulant at the Expo https://youtu.be/VvMH0sGQh8M (https://youtu.be/VvMH0sGQh8M)
This is a Froody Music production. Thank you to Martin Lumsden for producing.
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8 May 2025
S2:E6 Britain can make it, 1946
Harriet Atkinson is AHRC Leadership Fellow and Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Design at University of Brighton
Her latest book is Showing resistance: Propaganda and Modernist exhibitions in Britain, 1933–53
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9 Apr 2025
S2: E5 The Weather Project, 2003
In this episode Malika Browne talks to art historian, author and museum director Will Gompertz about Olafur Eliasson’s unforgettable installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in 2003. Was it an exhibition in the strictest sense of the word? Or was it an installation, a happening or even an ‘environment’? It was certainly a landmark event in London that decade. Will worked at Tate at the time, and has fascinating insights into the exhibition and how it came about.
This is a Froody Music production. Thanks to Martin Lumsden
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26 Feb 2025
S2: E4 Cybernetic Serendipity, 1968
In this episode Malika Browne talks to Melanie Lenz, digital curator at the V&A about the groundbreaking exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA in `London in 1968 in a discussion that explores the origins and the military uses of cybernetics, the difference between cybernetics and AI, and the effect this show had on its visitors in the pre-computer age.
DO NOT MISS Electric Dreams at Tate Modern on til 1st June 2025, about art and technology before the internet. It has a whole room about Cybernetic Serendipity!
Further Reading:
"Cybernetic Serendipity": The First Widely-Attended International Exhibition of Computer Art ( https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=1089 )
Seven minute piece of footage from 1968 of curator Jasia Reichardt explaining her fascinating show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8TJx8n9UsA)
This is a Froody Music production. Thanks to Martin Lumsden
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21 Dec 2024
S2: E3 Sensation, 1997
Art historian and author Dr Ben Street shares the pivotal role of the 1997 Sensation exhibition in launching the YBAs and redefining British art in the decade dubbed Cool Britannia.
20 Nov 2024
S2: E2 The Great Exhibition
Malika Browne talks to A N Wilson about the transformative power of the 1851 Great Exhibition, which sparked the founding of London's world-renowned museums and continues to support scientific innovation.
23 Oct 2024
S2: Ep1 Manet and the Post Impressionists
In this episode, art historian and curator David Boyd Haycock describes Roger Fry’’s legendary exhibition, Manet and the Post Impressionists held at the Grafton Galleries in 1910. In her essay Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown, Virginia Woolf wrote that on or about 1910, “human character changed”, a statement generally accepted to be a reference to the Post Impressionists show.
Further Reading:
A Crisis of Brilliance by David Boyd Haycock
Roger Fry, an autobiography by Virginia Woolf
The Sultan of Zanzibar by Martyn Downer about the spectacular hoaxes of Horace de Vere Cole, including the Dreadnought Hoax of 1910.
Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown - an essay by Virginia Woolf
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak and produced by Howie Shannon
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9 Jul 2024
S1: E6 The Armory Show, 1913
In this episode, art historian Irene Walsh describes the now legendary Armory Show of 1913 in New York City. Irene wrote her PhD on art collector Lillie P Bliss, and she tells us about the groundbreaking show's shock value, the mockery that surrounded some of the paintings in it, and their unexpected effects on the American public and the art market. She tells us how the show led to the founding of New York's MoMa in 1929.
Further Reading:
The Story of the Armory Show by Milton W Brown, Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S. 1988
The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution by Kushner, Orcutt and Blake, 2013
The chapter on the Armory show in The Shock of the New: Seven Historic Exhibitions of Modern Art by Ian Dunlop, 1972
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2 Jun 2024
S1: E5 Seeing Salvation, 2000
In this episode, guest Dr Xavier Bray, director of the Wallace Collection, describes the surprise hit exhibition in London in 2000: Seeing Salvation, Image of Christ, at the National Gallery. He shares his memories of being an assistant (and very junior) curator of the show and explains why images of Christ still resonate and matter. He talks about the impact of art on us and suggests what sort of exhibition the world perhaps needs at this troubled time.
Further Reading:
The Image of Christ: The Catalogue of the Exhibition "Seeing Salvation" (National Gallery of London) by Gabriele Finaldi (2000-11-10)
Seeing Salvation by Neil MacGregor and Erika Langmuir (2000)
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31 May 2024
S1:E4 Beaton Portraits, 1968
In this episode, guest Susanna Brown explains why the Cecil Beaton show of 1968 was groundbreaking, both for photography as an art, as well as for the National Portrait Gallery. Both its content and its design changed the museum, exhibitions, and photograph in Britain forever.
Further Reading:
Cecil Beaton's diaries in 6 parts in particular The Parting Years: 1963-74, Sapere Books, 2018
The Roy Strong Diaries 1967-1987, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1997
Beaton's Bright Young Things, Robin Muir, National Portrait Gallery, 2020
Beaton by Bailey - watch on Youtube
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak
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30 Apr 2024
S1: E3 54-64 Painting and Sculpture of a Decade
Malika Browne talks to former art critic Ian Dunlop about the landmark art show for Swinging London at the Tate, in 1964 for which the museum's Duveen Galleries were turned into a claustrophobic labyrinth of new art from America and Europe, putting London firmly on the art map.
Further reading:
The Shock of the New: Seven Historic Exhibitions of Modern Art by Ian Dunlop, 1972
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak
London’s New Scene: Art and Culture in the 1960s by Professor Lisa Tickner, Yale University Press in 2020.
Watching:
Pop Goes the Easel by Ken Russell, 1962
Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966
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30 Apr 2024
S1:E2 The Destruction of the Country House Show, 1974
In this episode, guest Sir Simon Jenkins explains how a simple yet powerful exhibition of black and white photographs shamed and shocked the government and the public, and brought about a change in policy towards country houses.
Further Reading:
England's 1000 best Houses (2003) by Simon Jenkins
Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History (1978) by Marc Girouard
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak
The Destruction of The Country House 1875-1975 by Roy Strong, Marcus Binney and John Harris
England's Lost Houses: From the Archives of Country Life (2002) Aurum Press by Giles Worsley
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30 Apr 2024
S1: E1 Bacon in Moscow, 1988
Malika Browne talks to James Birch about Francis Bacon's exhibition at the Union of Artists in Moscow in 1988, the first by a foreign artist in the USSR since 1917. Why did Francis Bacon agree to it? How hard was it to organise a Western art show in the USSR in 1988? Find out by listening!
Further reading:
Bacon in Moscow by James Birch, Cheerio 2022
With Gilbert and George in Moscow by Dan Farson, Bloomsbury 1991
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak
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29 Apr 2024
Trailer
This is an Ictus Media production, edited by Leo Hornak
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Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100
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Engagement
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