The Tastemakers (Hardcover, New edition)

A passing perspective of American taste, "our personal delight, our private dilemma, and our public facade", as it was formed, defined and refined by influential innovators through the decades is at once an entertaining and edifying history- which reflects the social as well as cultural changes of the past 120 years. And so this cavalcade of patrons and purveyors to an untutored public proceeds from the 1830's when factories mass marketed the "first sweet sips of refinement", to the next decade when Downing cleaned up the landscape with "smiling lawns and tasteful cottages". The art missionaries, Jarves, Reed, Bryan, etc. developed a new circle of collectors, and after the Civil War, there were prints for a popular market- while for the wealthy, massive mansions with a lustrous decor introduced architecture for "gorgeous sloth and immoral ease". In the '80's, Hunt became the arbiter of private taste; the '90's saw the last gasp of Victorian excess; and 1900 inaugurated Elsie de Wolfe as well as the new decade which emphasized the beauty of suitability. The corporate taste as it found expression in movies, in the exodus to the suburbs, in the "antiques craze", and finally in modern; the good life which became synonymous with comfort and convenience; big business- which embraced culture and soon was to become its sponsor- all this is part of the passing patterns of our visual arts as they were shaped and sold to a receptive audience.... And through it all, Lynes in an attractive escort: he writes with grace and ease and discretion. (Kirkus Reviews)

A history of American popular taste in art, architecture, and interior decoration, with short sketches of the men and women responsible for the trends.

General

Imprint:	Praeger Publishers Inc
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	April 1983
First published:	April 1983
Authors:	Russell Lynes
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	362
Edition:	New edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-313-23843-7
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General
LSN:	0-313-23843-X
Barcode:	9780313238437

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