# Alice Gribbin: The Hopes of An Aesthete

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hope-axis-by-anna-g-t-7076854/alice-gribbin-the-hopes-of-an-aesthete.md
Podcast: [The Hope Axis by Anna Gát](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hope-axis-by-anna-g-t-7076854)
Published: 2025-08-28T13:22:42+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-gat/episodes/Alice-Gribbin-The-Hopes-of-An-Aesthete-e37ecpk
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/f8e5b408/podcast/play/107475188/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-28%2F470fc806-2cb9-2eae-e3d0-aec32fcc8f9e.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-hope-axis-by-anna-g-t-7076854/episodes/alice-gribbin-the-hopes-of-an-aesthete
Duration seconds: 5251

## Resource

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)

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## Transcript

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