very good book but i didn't like all the art. style? school? ( )

Robert Rosenblum, critic and professor of Fine Arts at New York University provides the introduction: American Landscape Painting: an Endangered Species? giving an overview of the work and offering links between the various works. The catalogue of the paintings follows, divided into various genres such as Town and Country, The Farm and Field, The Great Outdoors and more. The text for the catalogue entries is written by Lowery Stokes Simms, Associate Curator, and Lisa M Messinger Assistant Curator in the 20th Century Department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. While short in length, averaging about a page in length, they are rich in content. These well documented descriptions include biographical information about the artist and a commentary on the work shown. Other interesting information might include details of how the artist approaches his work, often in the artists' own words. An example is the fascinating description Neil Welliver gives of his unusual painting method.

Each artist is usually represented by one full page colour plate and a postcard size monochrome of his work. Also included are just a few full page bleed images of a detail from a selected work. The range of work is wide including a sculpture; among the artists represented are Milton Avery, Ernest Blumenschein, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benson, Richard Chiriani, Andrew Michael Dasburg, Willard Dixon, William Glackens, Frederic Grant, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Leonard Koscianski, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Fairfield Porter, Marjorie Portnow, Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage, Paul Starrett Sample, Charles Sheeler, Dennis Smith, Clyfford Still, Tod Wizon, Neil Welliver, Yvonne Jacquette, John Tweddle and others.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Federation of Arts, this is a most attractive book. Containing 68 colour plates and about as many again monochrome images, it is well designed and produced; it all makes for a informative and visually appealing volume.

[ISBN 0847813037 ISBN 091741893X published 1991 by Rizzoli 174 pages 10.25" x 9.4" (26.2 cm x 24 cm) hardback] ( )