New Books in Art

In this episode of the Books for Better Understanding series from Notre Dame Press, David Carlson hosts Jonathan A. Anderson and James Elkins for a discussion of Anderson's new book, The Invisibility Of Religion In Contemporary Art (U Notre Dame Press, 2025). Order your copy here

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With Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America (White House Association, 2026), Leslie Greene Bowman presents a wholly new perspective on the White House fine arts collection, revealing how all two-hundred and fifty years of America’s history can be told through the collection.
Art for the White House begins with the story of how the collection was created—slowly and cautiously—as our young nation was eager to distinguish itself from artwork that could be associated with the patronage and luxuries of European monarchs. The very first work of art authorized by Congress was a painting that remains one of the greatest works of art in any collection of American art, George Washington by leading American portrait artist, Gilbert Stuart. This is the painting Dolley Madison saved in 1814 when the British set the White House afire and this painting has presided on the walls of the State Rooms longer than any other work of art. Bowman explains, “It is a touchstone to America’s violent and aspirational birth and a tribute to the success of its fragile experiment in the face of globally dominant, centuries-old monarchies.”
Despite the symbolism of the first acquisition, the collection that was created and ultimately grew to more than 500 paintings, illustrations, and sculptures, was slow to develop both because the nation was young and trying to define itself and also because of the government’s lack of resources. American art had matured in the 19th century, establishing strengths in landscape, still-life, and genre scenes, but the White House’s collection remained limited. Bowman attributes much of the credit for the growth of the collection to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy who “made the nation’s history a priority for her expansion of art holdings.” In less than three years, Mrs. Kennedy had transformed the house and art collection. Not only had it doubled in size, it represented the nation’s finest artists and included a variety of subject matter including still lifes, landscapes, history, and genre scenes.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Irina Shevelenko's Russian Archaism: Nationalism and the Quest for a Modernist Aesthetic (Cornell University Press, 2024) discusses the late-19th and early 20th century search for an archaic Russian folk tradition that could ground Russian art in an idiom independent of “The West.” While the [re]discovery of 14th and 15th century icon painting partially achieved this goal, Russian Modernists most often ended up creating art that was entirely new and which owed little to Russian folk tradition; the audience for this art was, after all, that same Western and Westernized elite.

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Understanding the world of art—particularly antiquities and archaeological artifacts—requires tracing how objects are removed from the ground, displaced by conflict or economic hardship, and ultimately reappear in the international art market. The odyssey of an artifact from its excavation site to an auction house, a private collection, or a museum display case raises a host of pressing concerns about the fragility of cultural heritage but also the global mechanisms that sustain its circulation. In recent years, growing awareness of a possible link between the illegal antiquities trade and terrorist financing has brought new scrutiny to regions marked by war and instability, particularly in the Middle East. In such places, archaeological sites are especially vulnerable to looting and illicit excavation, with the profits from these "blood antiquities" sometimes flowing back to fund further violence.
Art for War: Heritage Looting, Blood Antiquities, and the International Fight Against Terrorism Financing (Stanford UP, 2026) by Dr. Costanza Musu examines how this transformation in perception—from an archaeological concern to a matter of international security—reshaped the global response to antiquities trafficking. Viewing the trade through a security lens, the book offers scholars, policymakers, and students of international affairs a new way to understand how the protection of cultural heritage became entangled with the politics of counterterrorism and global security, sparking new debates over art, heritage, and security.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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When Neil Selkirk first saw one of Arbus’s photographs as a young man at someone’s house in London, it almost sent him screaming into the street. Unsettled and shaken, the encounter instead opened his eyes to the uncanny powers of photography. It turned Selkirk into an important photographer and, ultimately, an indispensable collaborator to some of the greatest photographers of all time, including Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and other greats. In our conversation on great photographers and the art of photography, based on Selkirk’s edited book Why Photographs? (Warbler, 2026) we discuss essential dimensions of photography, including riveting detail, spontaneity, credibility, and the gift of chance, and how they were celebrated by early photographers but soon denounced by an establishment that saw photography as a threat to painting.

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