Episode No. 756 features author Victoria Johnson and curator Emily A. Beeny.

Johnson is the author of "Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World," the first major biography of the most important and influential painter in the US nineteenth century. The book will be published by Scribner next week. Johnson's book tells the story of Church's life, and especially his travels even as she explains how Church's work engaged with the scientific and political worlds of his time. It is likely to be the authoritative source on Church's life for decades to come. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $35.

Beeny is the curator of "Manet & Morisot," an exploration of the artistic exchange between Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, now at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The show particularly focuses on the 15 years between 1868 and 1883, when Manet and Morisot shared perhaps the closest relationship of any two impressionists. It's on view in Cleveland through July 5. A fine catalogue was published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $57-70.

Instagram: Victoria Johnson, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 755 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Jess T. Dugan and author D.B. Dowd.

Radius Books is publishing "Jess T. Dugan & Charlotte Cotton: Love Pictures," a collaboration featuring Dugan's photographs and conversations with Cotton and members of Cotton's and Dugan's communities, such as Dawoud Bey, Kate Palmer Albers, and Michelle Millar Fisher. Radius, Amazon, and Bookshop offer the two-volume publication for about $75.

Dugan is a St. Louis-based artist whose work explores subjects such as personhood, relationship, desire, and love. Their work is in the collection of over 70 museums. The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum are among the institutions that have presented solo exhibitions of Dugan's work. This is Dugan's sixth book.

Dowd is the author of "Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration," which was just published by Princeton University Press. "Reading Pictures" details how, for many centuries, illustration has often worked between written, published text and art history to advance ideas and ideologies. Princeton, Amazon, and Bookshop offer it for $52-60.

Instagram: Jess T. Dugan, D.B. Dowd, Tyler Green.

Air date: April 23, 2026.

Episode No. 754 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features author Andrew Graham-Dixon and artist Rachel Burgess.

Graham-Dixon is the author of "Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found," which was just published by WW Norton. The book, a biography-ish of one of the most famous and elusive artists of the Dutch seventeenth century, offers exciting new ideas about Vermeer's life and presents new arguments about why and for whom Vermeer made most of his paintings. Amazon and Bookshop offer "Vermeer" for $35-42.

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University is showing "Rachel Burgess: Particles and Waves" through June 6. The exhibition presents Burgess' recent large-scale works on paper, typically monotypes, that depict landscapes and domestic scenes. Burgess has been included in group shows at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York, at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and more.

Instagram: Andrew Graham-Dixon, Rachel Burgess, Tyler Green.

Air date: April 16, 2026.

Episode No. 753 features artist Delilah Montoya and author Mario T. García.

Montoya's work is featured in three major exhibitions around the US this season. The Albuquerque Museum is featuring "Delilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance," the first retrospective of Montoya's forty-year career. The exhibition, which was curated by Josie Lopez, is on view through May 3. A valuable catalogue was published by University of New Mexico Press and the Albuquerque Museum. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $32.

Two significant historical group shows also foreground Montoya's work. At the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Montoya is featured in "Hyphen American: Intersections of Identity." The exhibition, which pointedly rejects increasing right-wing claims that the US is, or should be an ethnostate, presents the many ways identity is presented and interrogated in our art. The excellent exhibition catalogue, which was published in the four languages most commonly spoken in Lincoln (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic), was published by the museum. "Hyphen American" was curated by Christian Wurst and is on view through July 5.

Artists in the exhibition who have been guests on The Modern Art Notes Podcast include Radcliffe Bailey, Binh Danh, Catherine Opie, Alec Soth, and Renée Stout.

The Riverside (Calif.) Art Museum and The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture are showing Montoya in "Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966–2026." The exhibition shows how 45 artists have used their camera as a tool of representation, empowerment, and change over the past 60 years. It is the first major survey of Chicano/a/x lens-based image making. "Chicano Camera Culture" was curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. It's on view at the Riverside Art Museum through July 5, and at The Cheech through September 6. The excellent catalogue was published by The Cheech and is distributed by University of Washington Press. It is available from Amazon for $44.

Artists in the exhibition who have been guests on The Modern Art Notes Podcast include Christina Fernandez and Ken Gonzales-Day.

Montoya is one of the major figures in the development of Chicana art in the United States. Her community-oriented work addresses colonialism, identity, land, feminine power, and justice. It is held by museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

García is the author of "Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist, a Testimonio," which was just published by Rutgers University Press. It is the first biography of the Chicano artist Rupert García. The book, which is informed by 50 hours of interviews conducted over 30 years, is illustrated by 80 artworks. It is immediately the major volume on García's career. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $31-33.

Instagram: Delilah Montoya, Tyler Green.

Air date: April 9, 2026.

Episode No. 752 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Melvin Edwards.

Edwards, one of the most important and influential sculptors of his generation, the rare artist whose work simultaneously addressed the past, the present, and the future, died on March 30. He was 88.

This program was taped in 2015 when the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas opened the major retrospective “Melvin Edwards: Five Decades.” It was the first Edwards museum retrospective in 20 years, and the most thorough. "Five Decades" was organized by Catherine Craft. It included a re-creation of Edwards’ important 1970 installation of barbed-wire sculptures at the Whitney Museum of American Art, dozens of Edwards’ best-known works, his ‘lynch fragments’ series, and more.

The show traveled to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers and to the Columbus Museum of Art. The show’s excellent catalogue was published by the Nasher and appears to have sold out. Amazon offers it used for about $100.

The Nasher’s website features a Q&A between Craft and Edwards that host Tyler Green mentions on the program. For images, see Episode No. 170.