Books on American Art & Gallery Catalogues

American art history was written late — serious scholarship on American painting only took off in the 1960s — so the small exhibition catalogues published by New York dealers such as Kennedy Galleries, Kraushaar and Hammer Galleries are often the most detailed printed record of a painter's work. Many were the only catalogue the artist ever had.

The best way in is a general history of American painting, then the regional and period studies, then the monographs and dealer catalogues for the artists who catch your eye. State and regional surveys — Minnesota has an especially good one — are essential for the many painters who never reached the national histories.

Where to start

  1. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century — Barbara Novak, 1969. Realism, idealism and the American experience; a field-defining book.
  2. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920 — William H. Gerdts, 1990. Three volumes, state by state: the reference for regional painters.
  3. American Impressionism (in stock) — William H. Gerdts, 1984. The standard survey of the movement.
  4. American Painting: From the Armory Show to the Depression (in stock) — Milton W. Brown, 1955. Modernism's arrival in America.
  5. Painting and Sculpture in Minnesota, 1820-1914 (in stock) — Rena Neumann Coen, 1976. The survey of Minnesota's early art.

Books on American Art & Gallery Catalogues in stock (500)

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