Making American Artists

100 iconic American works of art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ collection.

This lavishly illustrated publication presents essays that offer groundbreaking re-interpretations of American art through the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ impressive historical and modern collections. Texts by leading scholars focus on the significant contributions made by Black, women, and LGBTQ+ artists whose careers were nurtured at PAFA.

What does it mean to be an American artist? The book probes what it meant to be an American artist when the first art school and museum in the United States was founded and what it meant to be one by the late twentieth century, traversing two hundred years of creativity and change through over 100 significant works. Leading scholars explore rarely-studied histories in essays that contribute to an expanded picture of the nation and its artistic heritage.