American Art of the 20th Century

A comprehensive survey of artists, styles, and movements in the modern history of American painting, sculpture, and architecture.

Seldom has the artistic output of one country had so far-reaching and immediate an  impact as American art during the twentieth century. With ever-increasing momentum, painting and sculpture in the United States departed from the poetic realism of the nineteenth century, incorporated Impressionism and assimilated Cubist experimentation, paused briefly to explore social realism in the Depression decades, and then plunged into Abstract Expressionism with such vitality and innovation that American influence now dominates modern art.

In this critical history of American painting and sculpture since 1900, the artists, movements and events that led up to America's emergence as a leading force in the world of art are covered in depth.

"The Eight", the 1913 Armory Show (America's dramatic and controversial introduction to modern art), the painters associated with photographer and dealer Alfred Stieglitz (Marin Dove, Demuth, Weber, Hartley and O'Keeffe), and the traditional modernists such as Stuart Davis and Alexander Calder, are just a few of the many fascinating men and movements described.