The American Wing

The fanfare that accompanied the reopening of the American Wing in 1980 sparked renewed inteest in American fine and decorative arts. Davidson and Stillinger have woven the research produced by the museum's expert curatorial staff into a lively survey of selected room settings and stellar objects. The subject matter is divided into such sections as period rooms, decorative arts, and fine arts and covers the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Unlike most catalogs of art museum collections, this offering devotes many more pages to decorative than to fine arts. The more than 500 photographs are of high quality and many benchmark objects are shown from new angles. This introduction to the American Wing surpasses nearly all surveys in its content and beauty.