Choice 评论

We have so little social history of art to enlighten us about America's particular love/hate relationship with the visual arts. Out of ignorance, therefore, we tend to devalue the fruits of our artists' efforts while simultaneously supporting school art programs and increasing our museum attendance records. Now, in a style both personally subjective but based on solid scholarship, the author gives us multiple insights into the second half of the last century in order to help replace that ignorance with an understanding of the emerging duality of feelings. Using the contents of boxes of letters, paintings, books, and other collectibles of a New Hampshire family (the Crosses) together with newspaper and magazine clippings of the period, Korzenik draws us into a world of ``fine'' and ``commercial'' art that characterized the times. Aspirations, both spiritual and material, that were built upon painting, drawing, and design motivated a strong art education movement-a school subject that in this century became dominated by the psychological theories of Herbert Read and Viktor Lowenfeld. The book itself reflects the artistic content of its text. Heavy off-white pages, wide margins, and handsomely reproduced illustrations make the reading easy and set the mood of the text's message. This volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of America's current valuation of art. For undergraduates, graduate students, educators, and general readers.-K. Marantz, The Ohio State University