Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast

From the New York Review: An Episode of Private Life with Namwali Serpell 20.05.2026 1ώ 16λ

Dialogues is pleased to present an episode podcast from our colleagues at The New York Review. Private Life is hosted by Jarrett Earnest and this episode features an interview with writer Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison, criticism, and narrative empathy. Namwali Serpell is a professor of English at Harvard University. In addition to On Morrison, she is the author of the novels The Old Drift (2019) and The Furrows (2022) and the essay collection Stranger Faces (2020). Private Life is a podcast from The New York Review, hosted by contributor Jarrett Earnest. Each episode offers intimate, in-depth conversations with distinguished voices from across the literary landscape—about their lives, their work, and the ideas that shape both. Along the way, they revisit pieces from the Review’s robust sixty-year archive (some episodes of the podcast will feature newly recorded readings of these classic essays) to situate arguments within contemporary culture. The show also includes discussions of titles from our book publishing arm, New York Review Books.

Bonus Episode | Anni Albers: A Life | Live with Nicholas Fox Weber 12.05.2026 23λ

In this bonus live episode, Lucas Zwirner returns to the mic for an interview with Nicholas Fox Weber, the director of the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, to celebrate Weber’s new biography, titled Anni Albers: A Life. Over the course of the exchange, Weber opens up about the writing process behind this major new biography and shares some rare anecdotes from a lifetime spent working closely with the Alberses. Anni Albers: A Life is out now from Yale University Press. Learn more about the book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300269376/anni-albers/

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh on Gerhard Richter (Re-run) 06.05.2026 1ώ 6λ

This special episode with Helen Molesworth and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh was taped in front of a live audience at David Zwirner New York for a 2023 exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s final paintings. A new exhibition of Richter’s celebrated photorealist landscape paintings from the 1960s to the 2000s, Gerhard Richter: Landschaften, is now on view at our 20th Street gallery in New York. The illuminating conversation draws on Buchloh’s decades of scholarly work on Richter, including a discussion of the art historian’s landmark 2022 study Gerhard Richter: Painting after the Subject of History. Learn more about the exhibition Landschaften: https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2026/gerhard-richter-landschaftenLearn more about Gerhard Richter: Painting after the Subject of History: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543538/gerhard-richter/

Michael Armitage 28.04.2026 37λ

An interview with Michael Armitage about his unique use of material and color, and his singular approach to narrative on the occasion of his major retrospective at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Titled The Promise of Change, the show is presented concurrently with the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale and on view through January 10, 2027. Armitage is also the founder of the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, a non-profit visual art space dedicated to the growth and preservation of contemporary art in East Africa and a participant in In Minor Keys at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, on view through November 22, 2026. Learn more at the Palazzo Grassi website: https://www.pinaultcollection.com/palazzograssi/en/michael-armitage-promise-change Image: Michael Armitage, Don’t Worry There Will Be More, 2024 (detail) © Michael Armitage

Marcel Duchamp: An Artist, a Rumor, a Series of Questions Without Answers | With Rachel Harrison and Alex Kitnick 21.04.2026 43λ

A conversation with artist Rachel Harrison and art historian Alex Kitnick on the occasion of a once-in-a-generation retrospective of Marcel Duchamp at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Alex Kitnick teaches art history at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Rachel Harrison is a Brooklyn-based artist. Learn more about the exhibition at MoMA.org.

The Story of Walter Benjamin’s Final Days and His Cherished Paul Klee Drawing 18.03.2026 33λ

Art historian Lisa Saltzman discusses Walter Benjamin’s final days in Paris before his suicide in 1940 and the network of intellectuals who saved his most prized possessions from World War II, including the Paul Klee drawing that inspired one of his most famous and trenchant texts, the Theses on the Philosophy of History. The exhibition Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds is on view at the Jewish Museum in New York through July 26, 2026. It traces the Swiss-German artist’s departure from the Bauhaus and his experience throughout the political upheaval of the 1930s prior to his death in 1940, providing a new basis for understanding his sociopolitical perspective and commitment to artistic freedom. Lisa Saltzman is the inaugural Emily Rauh Pulitzer '55 Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art at Bryn Mawr College. Her current book project, To Make Whole What Has Been Smashed, explores how one prescient passage from Walter Benjamin’s posthumously published writings came to transform his most cherished possession—an idiosyncratic little Paul Klee drawing of an angel—into the "angel of history," a postwar icon of impotent witness to historical catastrophe.

The Difficulty of Critiquing Black Artists | With Rachel Hunter Himes 11.03.2026 42λ

Helen speaks to Rachel Hunter Himes, author of the essay “Black Block” in Triple Canopy, about the long history of black artists underserved by white critics, museums’ moral and political responsibility to the public, and more. Rachel Hunter Himes is an art writer, museum educator, and PhD candidate at Columbia University. Read “Black Block” here: https://canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/black-block?ui.header=true

Todd Haynes x Christine Vachon 04.03.2026 32λ

Award-winning filmaker Todd Haynes and his longtime collaborator, film producer Christine Vachon, discuss their thirty-year creative partnership, from the emergence of the new queer cinema to the culture wars of the nineties. In 1987, Haynes directed the short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. His first feature film, Poison, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. After Safe, which featured Julianne Moore in a breakthrough role, he conjured David Bowie in Velvet Goldmine, then paid homage to German director Douglas Sirk in Far from Heaven. Haynes had six actors play Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. He directed the TV miniseries Mildred Pierce, then returned to feature films with Carol, Wonderstruck, Dark Waters, and the documentary The Velvet Underground, followed by the feature film May December. Christine Vachon is an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner who co-founded the powerhouse Killer Films with partner Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over three decades, the company has produced more than one hundred films, including some of the most celebrated and important American independent features. Recent releases include Todd Haynes’s May December (Netflix), starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and Celine Song’s Past Lives (A24), which marks her first Oscar nomination in the Best Picture category.

Rose Wylie x Russell Tovey (re-release) 25.02.2026 28λ

We revisit a conversation from the first season of Dialogues with critically acclaimed painter Rose Wylie, OBE RA, and actor Russell Tovey. Rose Wylie is the subject of a major retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, on view from February 28–April 19, 2026.Wylie, an admirer of cinema, and Tovey, a fan and collector of Wylie’s work, en

The Art of Installation with Amy Sillman and Donna De Salvo 18.02.2026 35λ

Acclaimed artist Amy Sillman and curator Donna De Salvo join Helen Molesworth for a deep dive into how an art exhibition comes to life. Amy Sillman is widely recognized as one of the most significant painters of her generation. Amy Sillman: Oh, Clock!, the artist’s first major institutional solo exhibition in Europe, was presented at Kunstmuseum Bern in 2024, before traveling to Ludwig Forum Aachen the following year. Amy Sillman: Alternate Side (Permutations #1–32) is currently on view at Dia Bridgehampton through June 2026. Donna De Salvo is a senior adjunct curator at Dia Art Foundation and previously served as the chief curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Recent projects include Steve McQueen at Dia Chelsea and Dia Beacon, featuring the immersive installation Bass (2024), co-commissioned with the Laurenz Foundation, Basel; Roni Horn at Dia Beacon; Walter De Maria: The Singular Experience, Gagosian, Paris; and the forthcoming This Land: Considering the American Landscape, cocurated with Seph Rodney for The Church, Sag Harbor.

How Pee-wee Herman Brought the Avant-Garde to TV | with Matt Wolf 11.02.2026 32λ

Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and producer Matt Wolf joins Helen Molesworth to discuss his latest documentary series, Pee-wee as Himself, a revelatory documentary about the late Paul Reubens. The HBO original two-part documentary Pee-wee as Himself is available to stream now on HBO Max.

The Myth of da Vinci 04.02.2026 35λ

Every era has its own version of Leonardo da Vinci, according to art historian Stephen J. Campbell. Campbell joins Helen Molesworth to unpack the 21st century myth of the tech genius that surrounds the Renaissance artist. Stephen J. Campbell is the Henry and Elizabeth Wiesenfeld Professor in the Department of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University. His books include Andrea Mantegna: Humanist Aesthetics, Faith, and the Force of Images and The Endless Periphery: Toward a Geopolitics of Art in Lorenzo Lotto’s Italy.

How Museums are Funded, and Why They’re Vulnerable 15.01.2026 26λ

Last week the Trump administration sharply escalated its impossible demands on the Smithsonian Institution. It's hard not to wonder when, rather than if this administration will come for the rest of our museums. With this in mind, Helen Molesworth invited Jill Medvedow, the former director of the ICA/Boston, for an explainer on how museums are funded, with the hopes of arming listeners with a deeper understanding of how it all works. Jill Medvedow is director emerita at the ICA/Boston and a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School.

The Best Art Exhibitions of 2025 10.12.2025 29λ

Helen Molesworth and Steve Locke sort through the many exhibitions of the last year to highlight their favorites, from Jack Whitten at MoMA and Stanley Whitney at the ICA/Boston, to Bo Bartlett and Lisa Yuskavage.

Kerry James Marshall, Modern Master 24.11.2025 51λ

Helen Molesworth invites curator Mark Godfrey and artists Arthur Jafa and Steve Locke to discuss the work of Kerry James Marshall on the occasion of his acclaimed survey exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Kerry James Marshall: The Histories is on view through January 18, 2026 and will travel next to the Kunsthaus Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland, and the Musée d’art Moderne in Paris, France. Mark Godfrey is the curator of Kerry James Marshall: The Histories at the Royal Academy of Arts. He is co-director of New Curators, a one-year curatorial training program for international curators from lower socio-economic backgrounds. He was Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern from 2007-2021. Arthur Jafa is an artist and filmmaker whose practice comprises films, artefacts and happenings that reference and question the universal and specific articulations of Black being. Steve Locke is a contemporary artist and educator based in Brooklyn, New York.

Special Episode | On Diane Arbus with Francine Prose, David Salle, and Neil Selkirk 19.11.2025 40λ

Helen is joined by writer Francine Prose, artist David Salle, and photographer Neil Selkirk for a conversation about Arbus’s singular importance. Francine Prose’s new novel, Five Weeks in the Country, will be published in May. David Salle is a painter and essayist living in New York. Neil Selkirk is a photographer and filmmaker and the only person to print the photographs of Diane Arbus other than the photographer herself. Visit two exhibitions of Arbus on view this fall: Diane Arbus: Konstellationen is on view at Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany through January 18, 2026 and Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum is on view at David Zwirner London through December 20, 2025.

The Infinite Yayoi Kusama 28.05.2025 37λ

An episode dedicated to Yayoi Kusama: arguably the most famous artist in the world and yet among the most indefinable, elusive, and transformative. Helen Molesworth is joined by scholar Jennifer DeVere Brody, art critic Johanna Fateman, and curator Catherine Taft to unpack the many versions of Yayoi Kusama—and her singular importance in 20th and 21st century art. A global travelling retrospective of Yayoi Kusama opens at the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland in October 2025; it will travel to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in Spring 2026, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in Fall 2026. Jennifer DeVere Brody is Professor of Theater & Performance studies, and, by courtesy, African & African American Studies at Stanford University. A Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts Research supported her forthcoming book, Moving Stones: About the Art of Edmonia Lewis (Duke UPress, 2026). Johanna Fateman is a writer, co-chief art critic at Cultured Mag, and a member of the band Le Tigre. Catherine Taft is a writer and curator and deputy director of The Brick, a non-profit exhibition space in Los Angeles.

An Art Historian’s View of How We Got Here with Jonathan Crary 21.05.2025 32λ

Helen Molesworth speaks to art historian and culture critic Jonathan Crary, whose recent books Scorched Earth and 24/7 constitute both a polemic against what he calls the “internet complex”—and a diagnosis of where society is now. Jonathan Crary is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University and is a founding coeditor of Zone Books.

Dispatch from a Humanities Field in Crisis | with Darby English 02.05.2025 39λ

With higher education facing existential threat under the current administration, Helen Molesworth speaks to art historian, critic, and educator Darby English about the difficulties of understanding this precise moment and the importance of discourse, independent thought, and history. Darby English is the Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at University of Chicago and the author of numerous books, including Among Others: Blackness at MoMA (2019), 1971: A Year in the Life of Color (2016) and How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness (2007).

Joan Mitchell at 100 with Julie Mehretu and Eileen Myles 23.04.2025 31λ

On the occasion of Joan Mitchell’s centennial year, Helen Molesworth speaks to artist Julie Mehretu and poet Eileen Myles about what Mitchell’s life and work means to them. Julie Mehretu, (b. 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is an artist who lives and works in New York City. Mehretu is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2025, the MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, and the U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts Award in 2015. Eileen Myles (they/them, b. 1949) is a poet, novelist and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has made them one of the most recognized writers of their generation. Pathetic Literature (anthology) and a “Working Life” (poems) are their most recent books. They live in New York & in Marfa, Texas. Visit the Joan Mitchell Foundation to learn more about their global centennial programming. Corrections: At 17:21 Helen Molesworth mentions the writer Jen Quilter; the correct name is Jenni Quitler. At 22:53, it should note that Joan Mitchell used a device she called a "diminishing glass" to get a visual sense of works as if seen from a greater distance. Explore Joan Mitchell (Yale University Press, 2021) for further research and reference.