The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 737 features curators Beverly Adams and Jamillah James. With Christophe Cherix, Adams is the co-curator of "Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition includes more than 130 works made between the 1920s and 1970s, making it the most extensive Lam retrospective presented in the United States. "When I Don't Sleep, I Dream" argues that Lam, a Cuban-born artist who spent much of his life in Spain, France, and Italy, was a prototypical transnational artist. It is on view in New York through April 11, 2026. The exhibition catalogue was published by MoMA; Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $60-70. Jamillah James has organized the presentation of "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition is one of the most comprehensive presentations to date of the pioneering Fluxus artist, musician, and world peace activist. "Music of the Mind" includes over 200 works across a vast array of media, including performance footage, music and sound recording, film, photography, installation, and more. It is on view at the MCA through February 22, 2026. An exhibition catalogue was published in North America by Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $38-47. Air date: December 18, 2025.

Episode No. 736 features artist Dyani White Hawk. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is presenting "Dyani White Hawk: Love Language," a 15-year survey of White Hawk's career. The exhibition spotlights how White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) has foregrounded Lakota forms and motifs to challenge prevailing histories and practices around abstract art. The exhibition was curated by Siri Engberg and Tarah Hogue with Brandon Eng. The Walker has published an excellent catalogue; Amazon and Bookshop offer it for around $50. After closing at the Walker on February 15, "Love Language" will travel to the Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. White Hawk's work is in the collection of institutions such as the Walker, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. White Hawk was previously a guest on Episode No. 610 of The MAN Podcast. Instagram: Dyani White Hawk, Tyler Green. Air date: December 11, 2025.

Episode No. 735 features curators Dan Nadel and Laura Phipps, and curator Alexander J. Noelle. With Elizabeth Sussman and Scott Rothkopf, Nadel and Phipps are the co-curators of "Sixties Surreal" at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The exhibition works to complicate the march of -isms which, outside the academy and too few art museums, has too often ossified into the the era's US art history. "Sixties Surreal" offers some of the ways in which artists working around the US (and not only in New York or for its market) mined surrealist thought and theory to help them reckon with the era's sociopolitical extremes. The exhibition is on view through January 19, 2026. The thought-provoking exhibition catalogue was published by the Whitney. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $40-45. Also, Nadel and Phipps have made a 113-song Spotify playlist to accompany the show. The Cleveland Museum of Art's remarkable autumn of major Italian Renaissance presentations continues with Noelle's "Filippino Lippi and Rome," a look at the Florentine's painter's work in and informed by travel to Rome. The impetus for the exhibition was Cleveland's own tondo The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret (ca. 1488-93), a masterpiece and the only known independent work that Filippino produced in Rome. Filippino is the son of the famed Fra Filippo Lippi, and apprenticed and collaborated with Sandro Botticelli before working on his own. "Lippi and Rome" is on view through February 22, 2026. A superb catalogue was published by the museum. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $40. Several months ago the Cleveland Museum of Art debuted Giambologna's Fata Morgana, a high-profile acquisition of a rare Giambologna marble sculpture. Instagram: Dan Nadel, Laura Phipps, Alexander J. Noelle, and Tyler Green.

Episode No. 734 is a Thanksgiving weekend clips program featuring artist Aliza Nisenbaum. The Des Moines Art Center is presenting "Aliza Nisenbaum: Día de los Muertos" through January 11, 2026. For the latest iteration of DMAC's annual Día de los Muertos celebration, and as the museum's Toni and Tim Urban International Artist-in-Residence, Nisenbaum created five paintings. The presentation was curated by Beth Gollnick. Earlier this fall, the Obama Presidential Center announced that it had commissioned a mural from Nisenbaum. Titled Reading Circles/ Weaving Dreams/ Seeding Futures, the mural will depict moments of civic life within a public library, offering a living portrait of community in action. This episode was taped in 2021. For images, please see Episode No. 522. Instagram: Aliza Nisenbaum, Tyler Green. Air date: November 26/27, 2025.

Episode No. 733 features curators Diana Seave Greenwald and Megan Fontanella. With Christina Michelon, Greenwald is the co-curator of "Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Boston Athenaeum. Both presentations are on view through January 19, 2026. (Theodore Landsmark co-curated the ISGM presentation.) The exhibition surveys the career of Boston-based Crite, whose work spotlighted Boston neighborhoods such as Lower Roxbury and the South End, the challenges they faced from gentrification and so-called urban renewal, and Christianity.  A fine exhibition catalogue was published by the two institutions. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $42. Fontanella is the curator of "Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Across more than 50 paintings and almost 20 photographs, the exhibition survey's Münter's work and finds that it was involved in avant-garde presentations of landscape, still life, and portraiture. Fontanella curated the photography section of the exhibition with Victoria Horrocks. "Contours of a World" is on view through April 26, 2026. A catalogue was published by the Guggenheim. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $55. Instagram: Diana Seave Greenwald, Megan Fontanella, Tyler Green. Air date: November 20, 2025.