The Fine Arts In America

"Though comparatively short, it is no once-over-lightly chronicle full of insignificant names and dates. It brilliantly achieves its principal aim: to provide readers with a compact but broad and well rounded conception of the progress of the fine arts in America from ca. 1670 to the present day. . . . It is a fascinating book, full of new vistas; it has all the earmarks of an instant classic."—American Artist "[Taylor] describes changing definitions of art as much as he describes art itself, and he shows how the shifting forms of patronage affected the forms of art. He analyzes artists' associations . . . and he shows how museums and schools have expanded the audience for art. In short, he places artists and their work in cultural context. This treatment of the social history of art is the most original and intriguing aspect of Taylor's sketch."—Journal of American History "This is a brilliantly subtle book. It builds with one insight after another, and suddenly the reader finds that a whole new way of looking at American art is being proposed. . . . After decades of thinking and looking and teaching, Dr. Taylor has written it all down. This work will become a classic interpretation almost overnight."—Peter Marzio, director, Corcoran Gallery of Art "Interest in American art is unlikely to abate. . . . Mr. Taylor's short book is an invaluable guide through this activity and to its traditions."—Neil Harris, Wall Street Journal

By Betty Bright.

With this publication, produced in conjunction with the largest expansion in the history of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the full scope of the museum's outstanding American art collection is represented for the first time. Following an introduction tracing the history of American art at this encyclopedic museum--a state-supported, privately endowed institution--readers will discover lively and generously illustrated essays about selected paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by many of America's leading artists: John James Audubon, Thomas Hart Benton, Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, John Singleton Copley, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Willson Peale, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, William Wetmore Story, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James McNeill Whistler. Also included are decorative objects by well-known artisans and firms, such as John Henry Belter, the Goddard-Townsend group, Herter Brothers, Paul Revere, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Organized in chronological sections ranging from the colonial era to the mid-twentieth century, this long-awaited book examines a noteworthy collection through a variety of interpretive lenses--aesthetic and cultural--for the benefit of a broad readership. Published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in association with the University of Virginia Press

The New York gallery American Fine Arts, Co.—whose name today is largely synonymous with that of its gallerist, Colin de Land (1955–2003)—represents a gallery practice in which a decided deviation from conventional models overlaps with successful activities within the framework of the art market. Today, American Fine Arts, Co. and de Land figure as uncontested projection screens for the desire for independence from or bohemian resistance against the dictate of the market. Particularly in retrospect, a consistent image of the gallery is not discernible. Faced with the obvious risk of romanticization, it appears all the more important to pursue an understanding of how American Fine Arts, Co. functioned as a gallery. This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Dealing with—Some Books, Visuals, and Works Related to American Fine Arts, Co.” at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg and Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lüneburg (May 28–July 7, 2011), which was developed by Valérie Knoll, Hannes Loichinger, Julia Moritz, and Magnus Schäfer. Contributors Andrea Fraser, Manfred Hermes, Karl Holmqvist and Tobias Kaspar, Isla Leaver-Yap, Jackie McAllister, James Meyer and Christian Philipp Müller, Magnus Schäfer, Axel John Wieder, Phillip Zach; a conversation between Colin de Land, Josef Strau, and Stephan Dillemuth; and an introduction by Hannes Loichinger and Magnus Schäfer

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, the production of America's consumer culture was centralized in midtown Manhattan to an extent unparalleled in the history of the modern United States. Within a few square miles of skyscrapers were the headquarters of networks like NBC and CBS, the editorial offices of book publishers and mass circulation magazines such as Time and Life, numerous influential newspapers, and major advertising agencies on Madison Avenue. Every day tens of thousands of writers, editors, artists, performers, technicians, secretaries, and other white-collar workers made advertisements, produced media content, and enhanced the appearance of goods in order to boost sales. While this center of creativity has often been portrayed as a smoothly running machine, within these offices many white-collar workers challenged the managers and executives who directed their labors. In this definitive history, The Making of the American Creative Class examines these workers and their industries throughout the twentieth century. As manufacturers and retailers competed to attract consumers' attention, their advertising expenditures financed the growth of enterprises engaged in the production of culture, which in turn provided employment for an increasing number of clerical, technical, professional, and creative workers. The book explores employees' efforts to improve their working conditions by forming unions, experimenting with alternative media and cultural endeavors supported by public, labor, or cooperative patronage, and expanding their opportunities for creative autonomy. As blacklisting and attacks on militant unions left them destroyed or weakened, workers in advertising, design, publishing, and broadcasting in the late twentieth century were constrained in their ability to respond to economic dislocations and to combat discrimination in the culture industries. At once a portrait of a city and the national culture of consumer capitalism it has produced, The Making of the American Creative Class is an innovative narrative of modern American history that addresses issues of earnings and status still experienced by today's culture workers.

Despite its size, quality, and economic impact, the arts community is not articulate about how they serve public interests, and few citizens have an appreciation of the myriad of public policies that influence American arts and culture. The contributors to this volume argue that U.S. policy can--and should--support the arts and that the arts, in turn serve a broad rather than an elite public. By encouraging policy-makers to systematically start investigating the crucial role and importance of all of the arts in the United States, The Arts and Public Purpose moves the field forward with fresh ideas, new concepts, and important new data.

-World War I and American Art provides an unprecedented look at the ways in which American artists reacted to the war. Artists took a leading role in chronicling the war, crafting images that influenced public opinion, supported mobilization efforts, and helped to shape how the war's appalling human toll was memorialized. The book brings together paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, posters, and ephemera, spanning the diverse visual culture of the period to tell the story of a crucial turning point in the history of American art---