American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship

General Editor: Stephen M. Sessler, foreword by Elizabeth Broun

For the serious collector and connoisseur of American art of the 19th and 20th centuries, this illuminating series of essays will be invaluable. Twenty-eight chapters, each written by an acknowledged expert in their field, offer thought-provoking examinations of a wide variety of topics. The book is divided into three sections.

Part I is The Historical Overview, contains fourteen essays. Their subjects range from the Hudson River School to the art of the American West, American artists in Europe, American Impressionism, Modernism, examinations of the major artists Marguerite Zorach, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, John Graham, Willem de Kooning, Guy Pène du Bois and his relationship with the collector Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, African American Art, figurative sculpture, and period frame connoisseurship.

Part II deals with Connoisseurship and the Collector, and covers such topics as developing an instinct for quality; dealing in fine art; conservation; choosing wisely in making a collection; the pleasures and perils of collecting art works on paper; researching paintings you may be considering acquiring; the role of qualified art advisors; the anatomy of an auction; knowing the law when buying art; and legal issues for the collector selling art. There are glimpses of the prominent collectors who have contributed so greatly to the American art scene over many years.

Part III is devoted to ‘Changes in the Art Market’. Here the authors consider, among other subject matter, ways of connecting historical American art and the modern world; why galleries matter; and shifting tastes in American art.

Hardcover, 304 pages, 180 illustrations, 10.25"x 8.5".