Reading the Art World

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 A
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

In the 40th episode of our "Reading the Art World" podcast, Megan Fox Kelly speaks with the Guggenheim's Megan Fontanella, Curator of Modern Art and Provenance, about her beautifully researched book "Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World," published by Guggenheim Museum Publications, distributed by Artbook DAP.
Our conversation reveals the life and art of Gabriele Münter, a pioneering German Expressionist whose bold use of color and form helped define early modernism—yet whose place in art history has long been understated. Fontanella traces Münter's path from her early photographic work during travels in the United States (1898-1900) to her vibrant paintings that reimagined landscape, still life, and portraiture through radical simplification and expressive color.
We discuss Münter's role as cofounder of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), the influential collective that included Vasily Kandinsky and other progressive artists who pushed the expressive potential of color and symbolic form. Fontanella shows how Münter developed her distinctive visual language—one that sought to "convey an essence" rather than imitate reality—offering a lyrical alternative to the pure abstraction that dominated much of early Modernism.
One of the most compelling parts of our conversation addresses Münter's actions during World War II, when she hid major works by herself and other Blue Rider artists in the basement of her home in Murnau, Germany, protecting them from Nazi confiscation. This act of quiet courage preserved a vital chapter of modern art history. Fontanella reflects on how women artists of Münter's generation have been systematically undervalued, and how recent scholarship is finally restoring Münter to her place in the modernist canon.
For anyone interested in German Expressionism, the recovery of women artists' legacies, or the collaborative networks that shaped the early 20th-century avant-garde, this episode offers essential insights into an artist whose vision continues to inspire—and whose work deserves far greater recognition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Megan Fontanella is Curator of Modern Art and Provenance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She is recognized as an expert in provenance research with a focus on World War II spoliation issues. Fontanella graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in art history and received her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where she specialized in late 19th-century French art.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
"Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World" is on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, from November 7, 2025 through April 26, 2026. The exhibition presents over fifty paintings across three Tower galleries, alongside nineteen photographs Münter captured during her extended stay in the United States. Learn more here: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/gabriele-munter
PURCHASE THE BOOK
https://www.guggenheimstore.org/gabriele-munter-contours-of-a-world
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
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

For the 39th episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Susan Davidson, curator and art historian, about her landmark book "Tom Wesselmann: The Great American Nude," published by Gagosian and Almine Rech, in collaboration with the Estate of Tom Wesselmann. Distributed by Rizzoli International Publications, New York.
This conversation reveals the unexpected story behind one of Pop Art's most iconic series. Wesselmann arrived in New York with no art training and couldn't paint like his heroes—a limitation that forced him to invent something entirely new. Davidson traces how he built his visual language from found materials: candy wrappers, magazine clippings, working radios, even a leaf from his soup at Trader Vic's. "The Great American Nude" series (1961-73) emerged from a dream of red, white, and blue and evolved across one hundred works that blur high and low culture, representation and real objects, art history and American consumerism. 
Davidson discusses Wesselmann's strategic placement of Matisse and Modigliani reproductions within his compositions—asserting his place in their lineage—while revealing the personal dimension often missed: these paintings were his sustained tribute to Claire, his wife and inspiration. Drawing on Wesselmann's pseudonymous memoir and extensive estate archives, she shows how an artist with limited natural facility built both a distinctive body of work and a lasting position in art history.
Whether you're interested in Pop Art's origins, the 1960s cultural moment, or how limitation can drive innovation, this episode offers a fresh perspective on an artist who turned constraint into creative freedom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Susan Davidson is an independent curator and scholar specializing in Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, with particular expertise in Robert Rauschenberg's work. She served as Senior Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2002-2017), where she organized exhibitions including "Jackson Pollock: Exploring Alchemy" and "Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective." Previously, she was Collections Curator at The Menil Collection, Houston (1985-2002). Davidson holds advanced degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute, London, and George Washington University.
PURCHASE THE BOOK 
https://gagosianshop.com/products/tom-wesselmann-the-great-american-nude-monograph 
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 live interview and podcast series with leading art world authors hosted by art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. The conversations explore timely subjects in the world of art, design, architecture, artists and the art market, and are an opportunity to engage further with the minds behind these insightful new publications. 
Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advis
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

Summer invites a different kind of attention — the kind that lets you sit with something longer, look more closely, and linger on a page. In this special episode of Reading the Art World, art advisor Megan Fox Kelly shares seven books that offer exactly that opportunity.

From the extraordinary untold story of Rose Valland’s resistance during WWII to the vivid experimentation of David Hockney, these titles span photography, memoir, biography, painting, and art history. Several are also linked to museum exhibitions currently on view in New York, Paris, and San Sebastián — offering a chance to pair reading with looking if you’re traveling this season.

This isn’t a list of books to toss in a beach bag — it’s a selection for the quieter moments of summer, when you can spend time with ideas that stay with you.

EPISODE TIMESTAMPS
00:40 - My Must-Read List
01:43 - “The Art Spy”
02:24 - “David Hockney”
03:02 - “Tina Barney: Family Ties”
03:49 - “Vermeer’s Love Letters”
04:31 - “Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York”
05:05 - “The Slip”
05:44 - “Irascible”

PURCHASE THESE BOOKS
“The Art Spy” by Michelle Young -
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-art-spy-michelle-young?variant=43046200836130

“David Hockney” by Norman Rosenthal -
https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/david-hockney-hardcover

“Tina Barney: Family Ties” by Quentin Bajac, James Welling, Sarah Meister -
https://aperture.org/books/tina-barney-family-ties/

“Vermeer’s Love Letters” by Robert Fucci -
https://shop.frick.org/vermeers-love-letters

“Do Something” by Guy Trebay -
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/550904/do-something-by-guy-trebay/

“The Slip” by Prudence Peiffer -
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-slip-prudence-peiffer?variant=40991813337122

“Irascible” by Adrian Clark & Richard Calvocoressi -
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300282696/irascible/

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 live interview and podcast series with leading art world authors hosted by art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. The conversations explore timely subjects in the world of art, design, architecture, artists and the art market, and are an opportunity to engage further with the minds behind these insightful new publications. 

Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past Presiden
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