American Art and Architecture

World of Art

by Michael J. Lewis

An accessible, concise, and beautifully written survey of American art and architecture from 1600 to the present. This new survey provides a complete history of American art and architecture from its seventeenth-century colonial beginnings to the latest installation and video work. Structured chronologically, the book defines the characteristics of the different periods and highlights the consistent forms, techniques, and styles that mark the art and architecture as distinctively American. Michael J. Lewis charts the ways in which American artists and architects both adopted and diverged from earlier European models to create an original visual language of their own. He also shows how that language in turn came to influence and eventually dominate art and architecture around the world.

Professor Lewis integrates discussions of both buildings and works of visual art, revealing the shared social and aesthetic concerns that underlie the two. Vernacular, religious, secular, and corporate architecture appears alongside paintings, sculpture, photography, and new-media art. All the major American artists and works from the seventeenth century to today are included, such as epic history paintings by Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley; sublime landscapes by Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and Frederick Church; society portraits by John Singer Sargent; groundbreaking abstract expressionist and pop art by Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Andy Warhol; and challenging sculptural, installation, and video works from more recent years by Robert Gober, Fred Wilson, and Matthew Barney.

In architecture, dozens of different building types are illustrated and discussed, from the earliest colonial houses and churches to the most spectacular modernist and postmodernist houses, stations, museums, and iconic skyscrapers. 275 illustrations, 175 in color

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Architecture, Art History, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2006

About the author

Michael J. Lewis is an American art historian and architectural critic. He is the Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art History at Williams College and the architectural critic for The Wall Street Journal.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been a little bit better written or more interesting, but I enjoyed reading. It's really relaxing to read a book that goes through time periods in such an organized way, and I learned a lot about art in my own country. Definitely made my visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts a lot more fun.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides some interesting facts, but not a thoroughly entertaining read.

[jakira · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid introductory read on american art and arch from colonial era to contemporary

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fave purse sized art textbook (you know, if you're into that sort of thing). Plus you get to read all the things Lewis says in lecture.