American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Translatlantic World explores the way in which two colonial painters in particular, John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West, put American art on a world stage. If this comes as a surprise to people who think American art languished in provincial isolation until the mid-twentieth century when abstract expressionism burst on the scene, the exhibitions curator and her catalogue. . . will enlighten them.Magazine Antiques * Magazine Antiques * A page-turner masquerading as a nearly five-pound, lap-sized book, American Adversaries explores how the two leading American painters of the pre-Revolutionary War era chose to go to England when the colonies opted for independence and how their decisions impacted their lives and their work. As with the best books about art history, it is as much about history and how artists fit into it and contributed to it as it is about art.Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes -- Tyler Green * Modern Art Notes *
