He was one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age—and for nearly two centuries, almost no one knew his name. Today, Vermeer is treasured. Again.

Vermeer's Afterlives, published by Princeton University Press this year, marking 350 years since Vermeer's death, traces how a French journalist's mid-nineteenth century quest to recover his work set off a remarkable chain of rediscovery—and asks how much of the Vermeer we revere was assembled, rather than simply recovered. The quiet, light-filled interiors we associate with him, and the sense of enigma that attaches to them, were shaped as much by the process of recovery as by the paintings themselves.

The forgery career of Han van Meegeren offers one of the book's clearest demonstrations of those expectations at work. Van Meegeren produced a faked Supper at Emmaus in the 1930s that was declared the greatest painting Vermeer ever made—not despite scholarly consensus, but because it filled a gap critics had convinced themselves was waiting to be filled: a missing bridge between Vermeer's early religious paintings and his later genre work. It succeeded because it told them what they wanted to hear.

The conversation turns to why his quiet, light-filled interiors have compelled critics, forgers, painters, poets, novelists, and filmmakers to keep responding to him ever since—from the lyric poets drawn to his silences to the novelists who fill his blanks with conflict the paintings themselves exclude. We discuss Lawrence Weschler's account of a war crimes judge at The Hague who spent his lunch hours in front of Vermeers, and what it reveals about what those paintings provide.

For anyone interested in Dutch Golden Age painting, the history of artistic reception, or the relationship between painting and literary form, this episode offers a close account of two centuries of Vermeer's afterlives.

It's very hard to sort out the Vermeer mystery from the fact that we forgot him—and that we know very little about him as a person—from the sense of enigma that attaches to the paintings themselves."

– Ruth Bernard Yeazell

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Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

About the Author

Ruth Bernard Yeazell is Sterling Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies at Yale University. Her books include Picture Titles: How and Why Western Paintings Acquired Their Names and Art of the Everyday: Dutch Painting and the Realist Novel, both published by Princeton University Press. Her writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

‘Abstraktes Bild (940-7)’ (2015) by Gerhard Richter, being shown at the Hauser & Wirth booth at Art Basel © Courtesy of the artist

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Melanie Gerlis at the Financial Times ahead of Art Basel 2026.

For the 290 galleries going into Art Basel, it has been a while since price levels have been so visibly high. At the same time, the industry remains volatile and an increased appetite for spectacle presents new challenges for exhibitors this year.

New York’s May auctions, which always set the vibe at the Swiss fair in June, demonstrated renewed demand in the $10mn-plus zone, not to mention a couple of $100mn-plus sales.

The art adviser Megan Fox Kelly summarises: “There is an obvious demand for really exceptional material. Are there dozens of buyers at that level? No. There are many individual interpretations that are different for each area of the market. But reports of strong sales lifts the mood. Collectors are feeling generally more optimistic.”

Read the full article here.

Amadeo Modigliani, Nu assis au collier (1917-18) Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Vittoria Benzine at Artnet News ahead of Sotheby’s London auction of portraits from the family collection of Joe Lewis.

Modigliani made over 300 paintings before dying of tuberculosis. Only 30 to 35 of them are nudes. Art advisor Megan Fox Kelly attributes the artist’s hot market to that rarity, as well as his standalone style.

“There are relatively few truly important Modigliani works available, even if seeing them appear at auction from time to time can create the impression that there are many opportunities to acquire one,” Kelly told me. “In reality, there are not, and sophisticated collectors understand that scarcity very well. That sustained demand from highly knowledgeable collectors continues to drive his market.” What’s more, Kelly said, “I don’t think the market has peaked.”

Read the full article here.

Danaïde (1913), Constantin Brâncuși. Courtesy Christie’s.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Anna Brady at Apollo during New York auction week.

‘The headline take-away is that the very top of the market is unquestionably alive,’ says the art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. ‘It was psychologically important, because it reintroduced a level of confidence that the market has been lacking in the last 18 months […] We’re seeing the great wealth transfer happening in real time. The question was would the market absorb it? The answer appears to be a resounding yes.’

Many are hopeful that this is the start of an upturn after three or four years in the doldrums. ‘I would resist naming this as a broader based bull run, at least not yet,’ Fox Kelly says. ‘What we’re seeing is a really bifurcated market: extraordinary strength for masterpieces and continued selectivity and price sensitivity for everything else.’ For Fox Kelly, ‘the question is whether or not that confidence at the top that we’ve just seen starts to filter downward.’

Read the full article here.

Auctioneer Adrien Meyer secures the winning bid for Jackson Pollock's Number 7A, 1948 of $157 million. Courtesy Christie's.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist George Nelson at ARTnews following Monday’s evening auction at Christie’s.

Megan Fox Kelly told Nelson there may well have been more buyers participating than was immediately apparent. Two Christie’s staffers placed an outsized number of bids on Monday: Maria Los, deputy chairman and head of client advisory Americas, and Alex Rotter, global president. They “could each have been speaking to multiple collectors throughout the night,” Fox Kelly noted.

Fox Kelly, cautioned that Christie’s blockbuster results risked masking a weaker broader market. “It’s not smoke and mirrors so much as how people interpret the data. If you’re not looking at the market from the inside, there’s a tendency to assume that when the top end rises, everything rises with it. That’s not necessarily the case,” she said. “When collectors see extraordinary works making extraordinary prices, they assume the market is up for everything. They think the value of their own collections has necessarily risen because a major Pollock or Rothko sold for an enormous number. But those sales don’t automatically lift the value of everything else.”

Read the full article here.

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With the spring sales underway and the New York fair circuit just behind us, Georgina Adam's book on the next generation of collectors feels like essential reading right now.

Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Georgina Adam, editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper, discussing her new book NextGen Collectors and the Art Market, published by Lund Humphries in association with Sotheby's Institute of Art.

What the book makes clear, and what our conversation kept returning to, is that younger collectors aren't just buying different things; they're operating from an entirely different set of references. Younger collectors came of age with the internet as a native environment, which has reshaped how they discover art, who shapes their taste, and how broadly they collect. Where an older generation built knowledge through museum visits, dealer relationships, and sustained looking, today's buyers are as likely to consult a WhatsApp group as a curator—and they move across categories, from contemporary work to old masters to antiquities, in ways the traditional trade hasn't fully figured out how to serve.

Our conversation also takes up the book's geographic argument: that the entry of collectors from China, India, and Russia—populations largely excluded from the market for most of the 20th century—is already reshaping what gets bought and valued. These buyers bring different iconographic traditions, different relationships to institutions, and different motivations, and Adam is specific about what that means for the artists, dealers, and auction houses trying to reach them.

The art market does remain elitist, it does remain opaque. Galleries particularly, and auction houses—the traditional gatekeepers—are having a hard time catching up and producing an offer that corresponds to what younger people want.

– Georgina Adam

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Order the book here

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

About the Author

Georgina Adam has spent more than 30 years writing about the art market and the arts in general. She was editor of the Art Market section of The Art Newspaper 2000-2008, then editor at large. She wrote a weekly column for the Financial Times for eight years, until 2016. In 2014 she published “Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century” (Lund Humphries). She lectures at Sotheby’s and Christie’s institutes in London and participates in panels about the market: she is a board member of Talking Galleries, patron of the Association of Women Art Dealers and member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

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Neuberger Wealth is the sponsor of this episode of Reading the Art World, helping to bring conversations like this one to a wider audience. Neuberger Wealth is dedicated to championing living artists, a mission established by their founder Roy Neuberger that lives on today through their contemporary art collection. Their purpose-aligned story guides how they serve and advise individuals and families, providing them with comprehensive wealth advisory and investment management solutions that enable their unique financial journeys and purpose. Learn more at neubergerwealth.com

David Shrigley's Gong (2012), presented by Anton Kern. Courtesy the artist and Anton Kern..

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Margaret Carrigan at Artnet News following Frieze’s New York’s VIP opening.

“You see something you’d scrolled past and suddenly it clicks for a client,” Fox Kelly told Margaret Carrigan after she’d done the rounds at the fair on Wednesday.

“Or you stand in front of a work and think of an artist you hadn’t considered before for them.” The fair, she said, is still where ‘connections happen, even when you think you already know what’s there.’”

Read the full article here.

Frieze New York 2025. Photo: Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of Frieze and CKA.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Margaret Carrigan at Artnet News ahead of New York Art Week.

The amount of high-value material coming to auction suggests confidence in the market right now, New York-based advisor Megan Fox Kelly told me over the phone, adding that there’s plenty of “appetite” among collectors to digest it all. That’s great news for an industry still trying to shake off three lean years.

That seems to be the case across the board. Fox Kelly, who is planning to hit Frieze (through May 17) and TEFAF New York (May 15–19) said that, lately, her clients more often than not go to fairs to look for “reinforcement” about artists that they “haven’t acted on yet,” rather than to buy a specific work.

Read the full article here.

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Listen to our latest podcast episode with William E. Wallace, internationally recognized expert on Michelangelo, discussing his new book Michelangelo and Titian: A Tale of Rivalry and Genius, published by Princeton University Press.

Wallace has spent more than forty years studying Michelangelo, and one of the things that makes this book unusual is its honesty about the limits of the historical record. Much of what passed between these two artists was spoken, not written—what Wallace calls boca, word of mouth—and traditional historians, who require documentation, have largely set it aside. Wallace's response is what he calls "informed imagination": a method of bridging the gaps between documented facts using everything the surviving evidence implies. It's a rigorous approach to a relationship that was largely unspoken, and it allows him to make a case the scholarship has missed.

Our conversation covers the theoretical debate that defined their two worlds: disegno, the Florentine belief that drawing was the foundation of all art, versus colorito, the Venetian mastery of colour and paint and Wallace's observation that neither artist actually cared about it. The academic dispute belonged to critics and theorists. Michelangelo and Titian were too busy trying to outdo each other. We also discuss the extraordinary shared social world they moved through: the same popes, the same patrons, the same courts — and Pietro Aretino, Titian's closest friend and the most dangerous writer in Europe, whose published letters give us a rare record of what was actually said.

The conversation closes with Wallace drawing a parallel to Matisse and Picasso—another forty-year rivalry that provoked both artists to greater heights—and argues that this kind of sustained, mutual attention to a worthy competitor may be one of the most powerful engines of creativity we know of.

Recognition of the greatness of somebody else is going to spur you on to try and equal that or surpass it. And I think that's a fundamental characteristic of our art world today.

– William E. Wallace

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Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

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About the Author

William E. Wallace 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.

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Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring András Szántó—cultural strategist, writer, and longtime observer of museums and markets—discussing his new book, The Future of the Art World: 38 Dialogues, published by Hatje Cantz, the final volume in a trilogy that began with The Future of the Museum in 2020.

The book brings together 38 conversations with artists, curators, sociologists, philosophers, collectors, gallerists, and institutional leaders from around the world. Rather than advancing a single thesis, Szántó maps the pressures shaping the field today: the consolidation of mega-galleries and the strain on mid-sized dealers, the erosion of traditional art criticism and what may replace it, the precarious economics of artistic careers, and the question of whether the current system is evolving gradually or approaching a more fundamental realignment.

In this conversation, we consider the scale of the global art world—some 300 art fairs, more than 100,000 museums, and a market approaching $60 billion—and ask whether that expansion has altered the system in kind, not only in size. We also examine the role of the art advisor within an increasingly complex ecosystem, the importance of criticism in sustaining the values on which the market depends, and whether artificial intelligence may emerge as a new connective tissue for engagement with art.

Szántó is cautiously optimistic—and makes a compelling case for why.

Never have in history so many people occupied themselves with the making, presentation, exchange, and discussion around art… Never has there been this much money being spent on art as in this very moment.

– András Szántó

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Note: click the "ask a question" button to explore the AI feature Szántó mentions in the episode.

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

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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.

Dorothea Tanning, Children's Games (1942). Courtesy Christie's.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Vivienne Chow at Artnet News following Christie’s London of Dorothea Tanning’s 1942 painting Children’s Games, which sold for £3.8 million ($5 million), nearly four times its £1 million low estimate. With fees, the work reached $6.26 million, setting a new auction record for the American Surrealist and nearly doubling her previous high, set just four months ago.

The timing of this record is no accident, said New York-based art advisor Megan Fox Kelly, noting that Tanning is no longer a “niche” interest for some collectors. She points to a confluence of factors, including heightened visibility for Surrealism, underscored by the major show at Paris’s Centre Pompidou in 2024—in which Tanning’s works were featured—and a broader “long-overdue” reassessment of women artists of the 20th century. She added that when a major early work like Children’s Games surfaces, serious collectors recognize they may not see another opportunity like it for years.

Read the full article here.

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Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Francine Snyder, Director of Archives at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, discussing her book I Don't Think About Being Great: Select Writings by Robert Rauschenberg, co-published by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Yale University Press.

Snyder 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." These materials, separated from project files and preserved together, show that writing was central to his creative process.

Our conversation addresses Snyder's 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 that would be erased by standardization. The book presents 100 writings selected from nearly 900 in the archive, organized into three sections: art and practice, friends and collaborators, and politics and activism.

We 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. Our 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.

"Rauschenberg also never wanted to explain his art. He wanted that for the viewer and he wanted everyone to bring their own interpretation in."

– Francine Snyder

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Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

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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.

Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Museum

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Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Matthew Affron, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Art Museum, discussing his book Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100, published by Philadelphia Art Museum and distributed by Yale University Press.

Affron 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. The conversation reveals 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.

Our conversation examines 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 discusses the wartime diaspora that scattered artists from Paris to Mexico City and New York, transforming Surrealism from a Parisian phenomenon into an international force that drew on indigenous North American imagery alongside European traditions. He explains why Surrealist images are not transcriptions of dreams but invitations into unstable territory where thinking, desiring, and imagining intersect—and why these works reward openness to surprise over attempts at simple interpretation.

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 whose techniques are now embedded in popular culture and whose questions about imagination and freedom remain urgent today.

" Yes, surrealism put forward an idea of the image as a picture of dreams or hallucinations from the mind's eye as opposed to direct representations of the familiar concrete world.

However, on the other hand, I think art comes from art. And many of the techniques and imagery that you find in surrealist works come from other art. But they are put together in a creative and original way. And to me that is a very useful way of thinking about where does this art come from.”

– Matthew Affron

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Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

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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. A specialist in the work of Fernand Léger, Affron has curated and co-curated several major exhibitions at the Philadelphia Art Museum and other institutions.

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, following distinct iterations at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and museums in Brussels, Hamburg, and Madrid. Learn more here: https://www.visitpham.org/exhibitions/dreamworld-surrealism

A Making Their Mark installation. Photographer: Joshua White

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Kathryn Tully at Bloomberg about the buying power of younger collectors and the representation of women in the art market.

In November, the New York Times reported that Christie’s sold Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait Me and My Parrots in a private transaction in 2021 for more than $100 million. Art adviser Megan Fox Kelly says it’s not unusual for masterpieces by women to fetch more through private sales.

Read the full article here.

Step out of the holiday rush and into a space where stories, images, and ideas unfold at their own pace. Boutique bookstores offer a magic all their own, inviting you into beautifully curated shelves, unexpected discoveries, and the quiet pleasure of simply taking your time. Whether you’re searching for a thoughtful gift or seeking an hour of calm amid the busy season, these independent stores encourage you to linger, browse, and be inspired. Here are a few of our favorites to visit this year.

Kramers

An icon in the capital, Kramers pairs a sharp, eclectic selection with its beloved café and bar. Come for the books, stay for the energy—and maybe a cocktail.

1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Beacon Hill Books

A jewel-box of a bookstore with a charming café tucked inside. Every detail feels intentionally designed, making it a perfect stop in historic Beacon Hill.

71 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02114

Rough Draft Bar & Books

Part bookstore, part bar, part community hub—Rough Draft is warm, spirited, and incredibly well-curated. A must-visit in the Hudson Valley.

82 John Street
Kingston, NY 12401

Annabelle’s Book Club

Founded by a teenager and devoted to young adult literature (with gems for all ages), this airy, carefully curated shop radiates creativity and heart.

12200 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA 91604

Lilliput Books

An intimate neighborhood treasure with a strong point of view. Lilliput’s selection feels personal, discerning, and full of delightful surprises.

2150 N. Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60614

Olivia & Daisy Books

A coastal charmer known for its beautifully chosen titles and inviting atmosphere. A lovely stop for readers wandering through Carmel-by-the-Sea.

13766 Center Street
Carmel Valley, CA 93924

Daunt Books

A pilgrimage destination for book lovers. With its Edwardian architecture and globe-spanning selection, Daunt remains one of the world’s most enchanting bookstores.

83-84 Marylebone High Street
London W1U 4QW, UK

Rizzoli Bookstore

A cultural landmark with an unparalleled art, design, and photography section. If you love beautifully made books, Rizzoli is heaven.

1133 Broadway
New York, NY 10010

Rodgers Book Barn

A magical used bookstore set inside a 19th-century barn. Wandering its creaky floors and packed shelves feels like stepping into a story.

467 Rodman Road
Hillsdale, NY 12529

The Corner Bookstore

Classic, elegant, and meticulously curated. This Upper East Side institution is beloved for its sharp selection and neighborly charm.

1313 Madison Avenue
New York City, NY 10128

Athena Books

Bright, contemporary, and community-minded. Athena offers a wide-ranging selection with a warm, welcoming feel.

228 Sound Beach Avenue
Old Greenwich, CT 06870

Books Are Magic

A Brooklyn favorite known for its lively spirit, thoughtful curation, and vibrant literary community. Always worth a visit.

225 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Each year, I put together a list of new art books that stand out for their insights, clarity, and sheer pleasure to read. These are books that illuminate the artist, the moment, or the discipline in ways that feel fresh. And this year, I’m adding three exceptional choices for young readers—books that introduce children to art with intelligence and imagination.

Listen to the accompanying Reading the Art World podcast episode below.

Barnett Newman: Here

By Amy Newman

Published by Princeton University Press

A revelatory portrait of a radical thinker before he became a painter.

Why I picked this: A rare biography that deepens our understanding of Newman’s intellect, politics, and artistic convictions long before he made the paintings we now consider essential. An extraordinary contribution to scholarship and a compelling read.

Fail Better: Reckonings with Artists and Critics

By Hal Foster

Published by MIT Press

Forty essays from one of the sharpest critical minds of the last fifty years.

Why I picked this: Foster’s breadth is unmatched—moving from Johns to Shermans to Pendleton with insight and precision. Essential for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of contemporary art and criticism.

Monet: The Restless Vision

By Jackie Wullschläger

Published by Knopf

A major new biography that reframes Monet’s life through newly translated letters and unpublished sources.

Why I picked this: A vivid, deeply researched portrait of an artist who changed the course of modern painting. Fresh detail, beautifully written, and illuminating even for readers who know Monet well.

Man Ray: When Objects Dream

By Stephanie D'Alessandro and Stephen C. Pinson

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The first in-depth study of Man Ray’s rayographs—those extraordinary camera-less photographs.

Why I picked this: A rigorous, beautifully illustrated book that connects the rayographs to Man Ray’s entire practice. A fascinating look at experimentation, chance, and the avant-garde imagination.

Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape

By Nicola Moorby

Published by Yale University Press

A dual biography that reveals the unexpected parallels between two giants of British art.

Why I picked this: Smart, balanced, and full of new insight. Moorby dismantles the familiar myths and shows how both artists shaped the future of landscape painting.

Sargent and Paris

By Stephanie L. Herdrich

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

A study of Sargent’s formative years in the city that shaped his artistic identity.

Why I picked this: A beautifully produced catalogue that traces the early brilliance of Sargent’s technique and sensibility. A must for anyone who admires his work.

Manet and Morisot

By Emily A. Beeny

Published by Yale University Press

A close look at one of the most meaningful artistic relationships of the Impressionist era.

Why I picked this: A thoughtful and intimate exploration of influence, rivalry, and admiration between two artists who helped define modernism. Insightful, elegant, and richly illustrated.

Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100

By Matthew Affron

Published by the Philadelphia Art Museum / Distributed by Yale University Press

A sweeping, lively survey marking the centennial of Surrealism.

Why I picked this: A vibrant overview that moves beyond Paris to show Surrealism’s global reach. Great range, strong scholarship, and a wonderful gift for anyone drawn to the movement.

Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets

Edited by Christopher Green and Nancy Ireson

Published by the Barnes Foundation / Distributed by Yale University Press

A rare reunion of Rousseau’s works from the Barnes and beyond.

Why I picked this: An immersive look at a self-taught visionary whose influence continues to ripple. The catalogue brings together works long separated and offers new ways of seeing them.

Robert Longo: The

Acceleration of History

By Margaret Andera, Rashid Johnson, Tom Teicholz

Published by Hatje Cantz

Longo’s monumental charcoal drawings responding to the political and cultural ruptures of our time.

Why I picked this: Urgent, powerful, and impeccably produced. A compelling record of an artist engaging deeply with the visual language of contemporary life.

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Books for Young Readers

A History of Pictures for Children

By David Hockney and Martin Gayford

Published by Abrams Books

A clear, engaging journey from cave painting to the digital age.

Why I picked this: Never simplistic—this book truly teaches children how artists see, think, and invent. Wonderful for family reading.

What the Artist Saw Series

By Amy Guglielmo and Heather Alexander

Published by Penguin Random House and The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charming, intelligent introductions to great artists and the worlds that shaped them.

Why I picked this: Smartly written, beautifully illustrated, and a perfect entry point for young readers who are beginning to look closely.

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky

By Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

A poetic, beautifully illustrated history of one color’s global story.

Why I picked this: Thoughtful, visually rich, and surprisingly expansive. A lovely choice for children—and adults who appreciate great picture books.

Image courtesy of Chubb Insurance.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with the Chubb Insurance team for their annual 2025 Wealth Report. This series of annual wealth reports provides a view into how affluent individuals and families regard their wealth, what they value, and how they are protecting their assets and legacies.

“It’s difficult to get people—even collectors—to talk about what happens to their collections after they’re gone,” says Megan Fox Kelly. “There’s the dream of what they hope will happen, and then there’s the reality.” Parents may assume that their heirs want to inherit a collection only to find out that they don’t, for example. Or someone may have a grand vision for their collection as the artistic foundation of a future museum but lack the time to plan for it while they’re alive.

It can be heartbreaking for children or grandchildren who suddenly find themselves executors, trying to fulfill their parents’ wishes for the collection when those wishes were never realistically planned for,” says Kelly. “Without that groundwork, it can become a burden instead of a legacy.”

Read the full report from Chubb here.

Photo: David S. Allee.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Rachel Corbett at CURBED about the November New York auction results and the sale of the Leonard A. Lauder collection.

To woo top sellers, auction houses compete with marketing promises, offering guaranteed minimum sale prices and lowering their own fees, which can lead to narrow profit margins and risky gambles on works that may not sell. Sotheby’s would not disclose the terms of its deals with the various consignors, but, according to art advisor Megan Fox Kelly, it had to involve “putting a lot on the line.”

Read the full article here.

El sueño (La cama) (1940; detail), Frida Kahlo. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Anna Brady at Apollo Magazine about the November New York auction results, which swept in more than $2.2bn (all results include fees) across Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips.

Megan shared before the sales that there was relatively little discretionary selling, “given the market’s cooler tone and the inflammatory press suggesting an even broader retreat. Collectors who don’t need to sell are likely waiting for a more buoyant environment.’ The result, Fox Kelly said, is ‘fewer speculative consignments and a concentration of material that has been off the market for decades’, such as the Klimt. The market has retracted, she concedes, but most noticeable is a shift in behaviour: ‘We’re moving from a momentum-driven market to a merit-driven one.”

Read the full article here.

Megan Fox Kelly recently spoke with the Observer on the tone beneath the November headlines and what this season reveals about collector psychology, provenance, global demand as well as the shifting balance between primary and secondary markets.

I would describe the tone as confident but selective. The strength we saw wasn’t a sudden “rebound”—it was the market responding to truly exceptional material. If there’s one signal that matters, it’s that demand for great works never disappeared. The narrative of a weakening market over the past six months came from a lack of supply, not a lack of buyers. When collections of this caliber appear—works with impeccable provenance and real art-historical weight—the bidding tells a very different story than the headlines.

The performance of these collections reinforces something we’ve known but often forget in the noise of the market cycle: provenance is a form of value. Collectors will stretch for works that come from thoughtful, well-built collections where the quality is consistent and the story is compelling. The Lauder sale in particular demonstrated that provenance can create its own gravitational field—buyers trust it, institutions trust it, and the bidding reflected that. It also tells us that confidence is still highest in artists with deep scholarship behind them. When a collection presents the very best examples by historically important artists, buyers step forward regardless of the market mood.

Read the full interview with the Observer here.