American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The nucleus of the collection was a donation of 51 works of art in 1919, predating the 1935 founding of the Commonwealth of Virginia's art museum; yet it wasn't until 1987 that American art was formalized as a separate curatorial department (other collecting areas had been formalized decades earlier). Here, seven years after its inception, this catalogue devoted to American art at VMFA comes to fruition, offering full-page plates and thorough documentation and contextual and interpretive discussion of 138 works of art. After an introductory essay discussing the history of American art at VMFA, including the relative neglect of this "stepchild of art history" until the 1980s, arrangement of the works is chronological beginning with the colonial and revolutionary periods and ending with the mid-20th century. The text is by four VMFA curators: Elizabeth L. O'Leary, Sylvia Yount, Susan Jensen Rawles, and David Park Curry. The volume measures 10x12". Distribution is by the U. of Virginia Press. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Elizabeth L. O'Leary is the Associate Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Sylvia Yount is the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the VMFA; Susan J. Rawles is Assistant Curator of American Decorative Art at the VMFA; and David Park Curry, former VMFA Curator of American Arts, is Senior Curator of Decorative Arts, American Painting, and Sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art.