'American Art' looks at the emergence of the United States as a primary influence on the international art world during the twentieth century. Covering a diverse selection of works from many of the major American artists of the time, the book gives an informative and richly illustrated overview of the era. As in music, the twentieth century saw American artists begin the seatch for a national voice, rather than merely emulating their European counterparts. A wariness of European abstraction, a feeling of isolation following the First World War and the enormous upheaval of the Great Depression prompted artists to find a style that would encapsulate the values of ordinary people in the everyday world. The result was a wide variety of exceptional art that reflected the changes in American culture and society, as well as America's position in the international art world. From realists such as Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton and Jack Levine, to the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell and the more recent Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, this stunning reference book covers the many and varied faces of modern American art.