John Singleton Copley, Jimmie Durham

Episode No. 276 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features historian and author Jane Kamensky and curator Anne Ellegood.

Kamensky is the author of "A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley." The book is a new biography that places one of early America's best and most important artists within the context of the political and revolutionary events of his time -- and details how Copley and his family were actors in them. Amazon offers it for $20 in hardcover and at $16 for Kindle.

Kamensky is a professor of history at Harvard University and the director of the Schlesinger Library. She is a historian of early America and the Atlantic world.

On the second segment, Hammer Museum curator Anne Ellegood discusses her new exhibition "Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World." Ellegood's retrospective is the first major Durham show in the United States in over 20 years. 

Durham came to prominence as an artist in New York City in the 1980s. His work has consistently addressed questions of identity, colonialism and the inseparability of identity from politics in the United States. The exhibition is on view at the Hammer through May 7, when it will travel to the Walker, the Whitney and to the Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The show's thorough catalogue was published by DelMonico Prestel.