The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art

The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art is an ambitious publishing endeavor, unparalleled in its comprehensive approach to the study of art in the United States. Edited by Joan Marter, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Rutgers University, the five-volume Encyclopedia reconceptualizes American Art from the vantage point of the twenty-first century with a new methodological approach and broader scope than any such work published to date. The project takes a fresh look at what American art is, how it is defined, and who influenced it and produced it, and it offers a new foundation for scholarship for decades to come.

Taking the American art content from Grove Art Online as its starting point, the Encyclopedia contains entries that were reviewed, revised, and updated as well as hundreds of new entries that comprise an up-to-date survey of this essential and ever-growing area of art history. It covers American painting, architecture, sculpture, and photography from the Pre-Columbian sources to the colonial period to the twenty-first century devoting coverage to many previously underrepresented areas of inquiry, including African American artists, Asian American artists, and Native American art, both historical and contemporary. Artists, major movements, institutions, critics, and the architecture found in major cities of the United States are covered, as are new media and methodologies, including digital art, performance art, and installation art. In addition to American artists such as John Singer Sargent, Robert Rauschenberg, Maya Lin, and Kiki Smith, attention is also paid to individuals who have had a significant impact on American art and art history through their activity in the United States, including Marcel Duchamp, Erwin Panofsky, Renzo Piano, and Max Beckmann.

With an extensive illustration program totaling over 700 images, 128 color plates, a topical outline, and a detailed bibliography accompanying each of the more than 2,300 entries, The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art will be of particular interest to students, researchers, and collectors specializing in American art as well as students and researchers in art history, American history, and cultural anthropology.

2011 Booklist Editors’ Choice
RUSA/ALA Outstanding Reference Source
Library Journal Best Reference 2011

Distinguished Professor of Art History, Rutgers University; author, Abstract Expressionism: The International Context (Rutgers, 2007); author, American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Yale, 2001); editor in chief, Woman’s Art Journal.