The Lonely Palette

Tamar Avishai does something on this show that nobody else in the art podcast world really does. She picks a single painting, heads to the museum where it hangs, and starts by talking to everyday visitors standing right in front of it. What do they see? What do they feel? Then she layers in the art history -- the movement, the artist's life, the social forces at play -- and by the end, that one painting feels like a whole universe. It is a brilliant format. With 105 episodes carrying a 4.9-star rating from nearly 850 reviewers, The Lonely Palette has earned its reputation as one of the most thoughtful art podcasts out there. Tamar lectures at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and you can hear that deep institutional knowledge in every episode, but she wears it lightly. The Washington Post and LA Review of Books have featured her work, and she won The Improper Bostonian's best podcast award in 2018. Recent collaborations include an "In Plain Sight" series with the National Gallery of Art that pairs companion interviews with art historians and critics alongside the main episodes. The monthly release schedule means each episode is polished to a shine. For anyone who has ever stood in front of a painting and thought "I don't get it," Tamar will change that -- not by explaining what you should see, but by showing you how much is already there when you look closely.