Smithsonian American Art Museum

Rockwell was a master humorist with an infallible sense of the dramatic moment. His single-image scenarios represented climatic moments that implied prior and succeeding events in ongoing plots. The authors trace Rockwell's career, explores his fascination with Hollywood, and draw parallels between Rockwell's subjects and those of Hollywood directors, including Lucas and Spielberg.

"Bill Traylor (ca. 1853-1949) is regarded today as one of the most important American artists of the twentieth century. A black man born into slavery in Alabama, he was an eyewitness to history--the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, the Great Migration, and the steady rise of African American urban culture in the South. Traylor would not live to see the civil rights movement, but he was among those who laid its foundation....

"By the late 1960s, the United States was in a pitched conflict in Vietnam, against a foreign enemy, and at home--between Americans for and against the war and the status quo. This powerful book showcases how American artists responded to the war, spanning the period from Lyndon B. Johnson's fateful decision to deploy US Marines to South Vietnam in 1965 to the fall of Saigon ten years later. Artists Respond brings together works by many of the most...

"Experience the spectacle of Venice and its rich history as a glassmaking capital through Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano. This exhibition catalogue is the first comprehensive examination of the American Grand Tour to Venice in the late nineteenth century, revealing the glass furnaces and their new creative boom as a vibrant facet of the city's allure. This gorgeously illustrated catalogue features paintings...

"Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women explores the design innovation and quiltmaking skills of Amish women from communities across the United States. The catalogue celebrates the Faith and Stephen Brown collection of Amish Quilts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Co-curator Leslie Umberger's introduction situates Amish quilts within the context of quiltmaking in America as well as within the American art story. In the catalogue's main...