Reading the Art World

For the 45th episode of Reading the Art World, host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with William E. Wallace, an internationally recognized authority on Michelangelo, about his new book “Michelangelo and Titian: A Tale of Rivalry and Genius,” published by Princeton University Press.
The book makes a case scholars have long resisted: that the forty-year rivalry between Michelangelo and Titian was genuinely reciprocal. Wallace shows that Michelangelo—far from the untouchable master receiving Titian's admiration from a distance—was the first to encounter Titian's work, the first to react, and in certain respects the more transformed by it. Kelly and Wallace’s conversation covers the two artists' actual meetings: Venice in 1529, Rome in 1545; the encounter at Alfonso d'Este's studiolo in Ferrara, where Michelangelo came face to face with Titian's mythological paintings and responded by producing the most erotic work of his career; and the role of Pietro Aretino—Titian's closest friend and, as Wallace puts it, the social media champion of the Renaissance—in shaping and publicizing the rivalry's terms.
The episode closes on the two Pietàs: one by each artist, produced in old age, in which competition gives way to something closer to mutual recognition.
For anyone interested in Renaissance art, the history of artistic rivalry, or how reputation is made and managed across a lifetime, this episode is essential listening.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
William E. Wallace is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author and editor of nine books on Michelangelo, has consulted for the Vatican on the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and has served as a principal consultant for three BBC television programmes on Michelangelo. He is the recipient of fellowships at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and the American Academy in Rome.
PURCHASE THE BOOK https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691266572/michelangelo-and-titian
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"Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.
Music composed by Bob Golden

For the 44th episode of Reading the Art World, host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with András Szántó—cultural strategist, writer, and longtime observer of museums and markets—about his new book, "The Future of the Art World: 38 Dialogues," published by Hatje Cantz.
The book brings together 38 conversations with artists, curators, sociologists, philosophers, collectors, gallerists, and institutional leaders—what Szántó describes as a “stained-glass window” onto the art world’s possible futures. Rather than advancing a single thesis, the dialogues map the pressures shaping the field: the dominance of mega-galleries and the squeeze on mid-sized dealers, the erosion of traditional art criticism and what may replace it, the precarious economics of artistic careers, and whether today’s system is evolving gradually or approaching a more fundamental realignment.
Their conversation takes up the scale of the global art world—some 300 art fairs, more than 100,000 museums, and a market approaching $60 billion—and asks whether that expansion has altered the system in kind, not only in size. They discuss the role of the art advisor within an increasingly complex ecosystem, the importance of criticism in sustaining the values the market depends on, and whether artificial intelligence may emerge as a new connective tissue for engagement with art. Szántó is cautiously optimistic, pointing to developments such as the emergence of gallery districts in Tribeca, the Studio Museum in Harlem’s new building, and the reopening of the Frick—while remaining clear-eyed about the structural headwinds ahead.
For those working within the art world—as well as those seeking to understand it—this conversation offers something rare: the breadth of 38 dialogues distilled into a single, considered one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
András Szántó, PhD, advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and leading brands worldwide on cultural strategy. He has directed the Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, and The Art Newspaper. Born in Budapest, he lives in Brooklyn.
PURCHASE THE BOOK
https://andras-szanto.com/book/the-future-of-the-art-world-38-dialogues/
Note: click the “ask a question” button to see the AI feature mentioned in the episode. 
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"Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.
Music composed by Bob Golden

For the 43rd episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Francine Snyder, Director of Archives at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, about her recently published book "I Don't Think About Being Great: Select Writings by Robert Rauschenberg," co-published by the foundation and Yale University Press.
Their conversation reveals a side of Rauschenberg that many don't know: his relationship to language and writing. Despite self-identifying as dyslexic, Rauschenberg kept a substantial body of written work—correspondence, artist notes, testimony, speeches, and fragments—which he labeled in his own hand as "file RR writing." Snyder discusses the editorial choice to preserve Rauschenberg's misspellings, cross-outs, and grammatical idiosyncrasies rather than correct them. These visual elements function like collage—intentional word play and phonetic experimentation. The book presents 100 writings selected from nearly 900 in the archive.
They discuss several key texts, including Rauschenberg's 1963 artist statement declaring "it is extremely important that art be unjustifiable"—a phrase he arrived at by crossing out "justifiable" in earlier drafts. This refusal of explanation aligns with his resistance to fixed meaning and his insistence that viewers bring their own interpretations. The conversation also addresses Rauschenberg's activism, from founding Change Inc. in 1970 to provide emergency support for artists, to advocating for artist resale royalty rights and NEA funding, to launching ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange) in the 1980s to foster artistic dialogue across borders.
For anyone interested in postwar American art, artist archives, or how foundations steward intellectual legacy, this episode offers insight into an artist whose relationship to language was as experimental as his visual work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Francine Snyder is Director of Archives at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, where she has worked since 2015. She specializes in artist and museum archives and in fostering research and scholarship on contemporary cross-disciplinary creative practices. Major initiatives under her leadership include the foundation's Fair Use Policy to reduce barriers to image use, the Archives Research Residency program, and expanded digital archives.
PURCHASE THE BOOK https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300282566/i-dont-think-about-being-great/
SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW AND HEAR INTERVIEWS:
For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our Of Interest page for new posts.
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"Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.
Music composed by Bob Golden

For the 42nd episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Dr. Matthew Affron, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Art Museum, about his book "Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100," published by the museum and distributed by Yale University Press.
Their conversation traces Surrealism from its 1924 origins in André Breton's manifesto—which asked "how should we live?"—to its evolution as both an artistic movement and a philosophy of liberation. Affron shows how Surrealism emerged not as a singular style but as a set of strategies for merging dream and reality, expressed through automatism, collage, found objects, and juxtaposition—techniques designed to bypass conscious control and access the unconscious.
They discuss how the movement's early lyrical explorations gave way in the 1930s to urgent responses to fascism's rise, with monsters and hybrids becoming visual metaphors for political evil. Affron examines the wartime diaspora that transformed Surrealism from a Parisian phenomenon into an international force, as artists fled to Mexico City and New York, drawing on indigenous North American imagery alongside European traditions.
Affron emphasizes that Surrealist images are not transcriptions of dreams but invitations into unstable territory where thinking, desiring, and imagining intersect. He explains why these works reward openness to surprise over attempts to decode them, and how their techniques—now part of popular culture—keep Surrealism relevant for contemporary audiences.
For anyone interested in modern art's avant-garde movements, the intersection of art and politics, or how creative communities adapt under pressure, this episode offers essential insights into a movement that continues to shape how we think about imagination and freedom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Affron is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Art Museum. He holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University and has published extensively on early abstract art, Fernand Léger, and modern art's relationship to politics. His previous books include Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950, The Essential Duchamp, and Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
"Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100" is on view at the Philadelphia Art Museum through February 16, 2026. The exhibition features approximately 200 works by more than 70 artists, with highlights including Joan Miró's Dog Barking at the Moon (1926), Salvador Dalí's Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936), and Dorothea Tanning's Birthday (1942). Philadelphia is the sole North American venue for this international centennial celebration. Learn more here: https://www.visitpham.org/exhibitions/dreamworld-surrealism
PURCHASE THE BOOK
https://store.philamuseum.org/dreamworld-surrealism-at-100-exhibition-catalog/
SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW AND HEAR INTERVIEWS:
For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our Of Interest page for new posts.
Follow us on Instagram: @meganfoxkelly
"Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.
Music composed by Bob Golden

Join art advisor Megan Fox Kelly for a special holiday episode featuring her annual selection of art books worth giving—and keeping for yourself.
This year's list includes revelatory biographies, major exhibition catalogues, and essential critical writing. From Barnett Newman's political and intellectual life before he became a painter, to Monet's restless vision traced through newly translated letters, these books illuminate artists and movements with fresh insight and rigorous scholarship.
For the first time, Megan also recommends three exceptional books for young readers—intelligent introductions to art that never talk down to children. Whether you're looking for David Hockney's guide to pictures, the Met's "What the Artist Saw" series, or a poetic history of the color blue, these are books that teach children (and adults) how to see.
To hear in-depth interviews with authors of other outstanding art books, subscribe to "Reading the Art World" on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
SHOW NOTES
Episode Timestamps: 
[00:00] - Introduction 
[01:05] - Barnett Newman: Here (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691249186/barnett-newman)
[01:38] - Fail Better: Reckonings with Artists and Critics (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552356/fail-better/)
[02:17] - Monet: The Restless Vision (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/250416/monet-by-jackie-wullschlager/)
[02:42] - Man Ray: When Objects Dream (https://store.metmuseum.org/man-ray-when-objects-dream-80060783)
[03:24] - Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape (https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300266481/turner-and-constable/)
[03:55] - Sargent and Paris (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9781588397959/sargent-and-paris/)
[04:32] - Manet and Morisot (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300280982/manet-and-morisot/)
[05:15] - Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780876333082/dreamworld/)
[05:55] - Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300284355/henri-rousseau/)
[06:29] - Robert Longo: The Acceleration of History (https://www.hatjecantz.com/collections/new-books/products/67473-robert-longo-the-acceleration-of-history)
[07:08] - A History of Pictures for Children (https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/history-of-pictures-for-children_9781419732119/)
[07:50] - What the Artis
SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW AND HEAR INTERVIEWS:
For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our Of Interest page for new posts.
Follow us on Instagram: @meganfoxkelly
"Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.
Music composed by Bob Golden