Skip to main content

Distributed for Terra Foundation for American Art

Art of the United States, 1750–2000

Art of the United States is a landmark volume that presents three centuries of US art through a broad array of historical texts, including writings by artists, critics, patrons, literary figures, and other commentators. Combining a wide-ranging selection of texts with high-quality reproductions of artworks, it offers a resource for the study and understanding of the visual arts of the United States. With contextual essays, explanatory headnotes, a chronology of US historical landmarks, maps, and full-color illustrations of key artworks, the volume will appeal to national and international audiences ranging from undergraduates and museum visitors to art historians and other scholars. Texts by a range of artists and cultural figures—including John Adams, Thomas Cole, Frederick Douglass, Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Clement Greenberg, and Cindy Sherman—are grouped according to historical era alongside additional featured artists.

A sourcebook of unprecedented breadth and depth, Art of the United States brings together multiple voices throughout the ages to provide a framework for learning and critical thinking on US art.
 

544 pages | 90 color plates, 36 halftones, 14 maps | 7 3/4 x 8 3/4 | © 2020

Art: American Art


Terra Foundation for American Art image

View all books from Terra Foundation for American Art

Reviews

"Art of the United States, 1750-2000: Primary Sources is an affordable and well-organized anthology that can serve as an introduction to primary sources for undergraduate students studying art history as well as casual readers interested in American art. It is well-suited for general academic collections as well as fine art libraries that support undergraduate study and could easily serve as a supplementary course-assigned text for an introductory American art course."

Art Libraries Society of North America

"Created with non–English speakers in mind, Art of the United States, 1750–2000 is an inspiring and unique source book. The primary texts—which include letters, artists’ writings, interviews, diaries, and critical texts—provide unique, and sometimes personal, insights about the art and culture of the US during the particular time frame. Together these sources create across-cultural framework for learning about US art in a way that will appeal to anyone interested in US history and art. Recommended."

Choice

Table of Contents

Chapters
1750–1830: Building Patronage and Institutions                                          
       John Adams, Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, John James Audubon…
1830–1850: Landscape, Democracy, Race                                                      
            Thomas Cole, Samuel F. B. Morse, George Catlin, Frederick Douglass…
1850–1870: The Civil War and its Aftermath                                                          
            Asher B. Durand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Hosmer, Oliver Wendell Holmes…
4.    1870–1885: The Gilded Age                                                                           
            J. Alden Weir, Henry James, Thomas Eakins, Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer…
5.     1885–1900: A New Internationalism                                                             
            Kenyon Cox, James McNeill, Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Booker T. Washington…
6.    1900–1918: Progressivism and Modernism                                                   
            Lewis Hine, Robert Henri, Theodore Roosevelt, Marcel Duchamp…
7.     1918–1939: Prosperity and Depression                                                          
            Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Langston Hughes, Romare Bearden... 
8.    1940–1960: War and Cold War, Anxiety and Affluence                                        
            Norman Rockwell, Jackson Pollock, Clement Greenberg, Louise Bourgeois…
9.     1960–1980: Political Polarization, Counterculture and Reaction                
            Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, Judy Chicago, Adrian Piper…
10.   1980–2000: Culture Wars and Postmodernism                                           
            Cindy Sherman, Maya Lin, Hans Haacke, Jean-Michel Basquiat…
 

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press