{"product_id":"the-american-art-union-9781531506988","title":"The American Art-Union","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first comprehensive treatment in seventy years of the American Art-Union's remarkable rise and fall \u003c\/b\u003e      \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor  over a decade, the New York-based American Art-Union shaped art  creation, display, and patronage nationwide. Boasting as many as 19,000  members from almost every state, its meteoric rise and its sudden and  spectacular collapse still raise a crucial question: Why did such a  successful and influential institution fail? \u003ci\u003eThe American Art-Union \u003c\/i\u003ereveals  a sprawling and fascinating account of the country's first nationwide  artistic phenomenon, creating a shared experience of visual culture, art  news and criticism, and a direct experience with original works.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor  an annual fee of five dollars, members of the American Art-Union  received an engraving after a painting by a notable U.S. artist and the  annual publication \u003ci\u003eTransactions\u003c\/i\u003e (1839–49) and later the monthly \u003ci\u003eBulletin\u003c\/i\u003e  (1848–53). Most importantly, members' names were entered in a drawing  for hundreds of original paintings and sculptures by most of the era's  best-known artists. Those artworks were displayed in its immensely  popular Free Gallery. Unfortunately, the experiment was short-lived.  Opposition grew, and a cascade of events led to an 1852 court case that  proved to be the Art-Union's downfall. Illuminating the workings of the  American art market, this study fills a gaping lacuna in the history of  nineteenth-century U.S. art. Dr. Kimberly A. Orcutt draws from the  American Art-Union's records as well as in-depth contextual research to  track the organization's decisive impact that set the direction of the  country's paintings, sculpture, and engravings for well over a decade. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e​​Forged  in cultural crosscurrents of utopianism and skepticism, the American  Art-Union's demise can be traced to its nature as an attempt to create  and control the complex system that the early nineteenth-century art  world represented. This study breaks the organization's activities into  their major components to offer a structural rather than chronological  narrative that follows mounting tensions to their inevitable end. The  institution was undone not by dramatic outward events or the character  of its leadership but by the character of its utopianist plan.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kimberly A. Orcutt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48282487947515,"sku":"9781531506988","price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_93f78674-2dee-4b6b-855d-e8e55da7ef22.jpg?v=1778613747","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/the-american-art-union-9781531506988","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}