Lisa Farrington’s book, The World Before Racism: An Art Story, compels us to realize that racism is broader, deeper, and stronger than we realize, or want to realize, and also more arbitrary.

On the occasion of Graham Nickson’s solo exhibition In Black and White at Betty Cuningham Gallery in 2022, art historian Jack Flam and Rail Publisher and Artistic Director Phong H. Bui engaged in two extended conversations with the artist about his long career as a painter and an educator. In addition to a distinguished career as an artist, Graham was a legendary and deeply committed faculty member and Dean of the New York Studio School for thirty-four years. 

Around 1960, when I was a student, abstract painting was still controversial, in a couple of very different ways. On the one hand, more traditionally minded artists and critics considered it unserious: too easy to do, meaningless.