Episode No. 775 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features art historian Richard J. Powell and curator Danielle Canter.

Powell is the author of “Colorstruck! Painting, Pigment, Affect,” which was just published by Princeton University Press. The book examines the historical and cultural work color does in the work of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, Hervé Télémaque, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Nina Chanel Abney. The book builds on Powell’s 2022 National Gallery of Art Mellon Lectures of the same title. Bookshop and Amazon offer “Colorstruck!” from $46-61.

As discussed on the program:

• Powell’s Mellon Lectures may be viewed here;
• The Amistad Research Center, Tulane University collection of Jacob Lawrence works, including the Toussaint L’Ouverture series;
• Nina Chanel Abney, San Juan Heal (Lincoln Center wall); and
• “Matisse Alive” at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Powell, a professor at Duke University, is the author of numerous books, including “Going There: Black Visual Satire,” “Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture,” and “Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson.”

Canter is the curator of “Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions” at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The exhibition spotlights Redon’s works on paper, including charcoal drawings, lithographs, and pastels. It particularly focuses on Redon’s fantastical world of tonal and psychological darkness, and also his luminous color. It’s on view through October 18. A Getty-published catalogue is available from Bookshop and Amazon for $25.

Instagram: Richard J. Powell, Tyler Green.

Air date: September 10, 2026.