Somehow this very little book--four by four-and-a-half inches--packs a hundred years of American art into nearly 300 pages, with nearly that many full- color reproductions. It is one of a score of such pocket-bulgers in the "Tiny Folio" series, which offers quickie courses on a range of art-historical themes and museum collections. All the icons of "the American Century" are here, including John Sloan's 1914 Backyards, Greenwich Village, Georgia O'Keeffe's 1936 Summer Days, Alexander Calder's circus toys from the late 1920s, Edward Hopper's 1960 Second Story Sunlight, Jacob Lawrence's 1942 Tombstones, and an early Philip Guston, Drawing for Conspirators, a 1930 work on paper in which sinister hooded figures prefigure his later imagery. And that's just the first quarter of the book. Chronological chapters include: American Modernism; American Scene and Surrealism; Abstract Art at Mid- Century; Into the Sixties; Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, and Conceptual Art; and The Seventies and Beyond, each delivered with a two-page capsule introduction.

Surprisingly, it is the large works from mid-century and later--by Pollock, DeKooning, Warhol, DiSuvero, Hesse, Johns, and many others--that work best in this teensy format. Their simplified designs make them remarkably readable. And despite the book's art-lite look, the editors have taken pains to be up-to-date and inclusive, incorporating works by living artists Dan Graham, Nan Goldin, Alison Saar, and David Hammons along with the dead and famous. Although a book like this could drive the bifocal set mad, it is a perfect mnemonic device for a visit to the Whitney, where so little of the permanent collection is ever on view. --Peggy Moorman

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Whitney Museum in New York is one of the country's premier showcases for 20th-century American art.

This survey of the Whitney's Permanent Collection presents a selection of remarkable works, in a variety of media, by the most notable American artists. Among the more than two hundred images are paintings by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank Stella, Franz Kline, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns; sculpture by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, and David Smith; photographs by Robert Frank, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Diane Arbus; and drawings by Hopper, Philip Guston, and Jackson Pollock. A handy companion to the Whitney's Permanent Collection, this Tiny Folio offers a century of masterpieces from a superlative institution.

Other Details: 240 full-color illustrations 288 pages 4 x 4" Published 1998

the death of the Museum's first director, Juliana Force, it was soon evident that to keep pace with the burgeoning artistic activity in the United States, the Whitney needed to substantially augment its acquisition funds. In 1956, a group of supporters formed the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art. This organization was led by ardent collectors and benefactors of American art: Seymour H. Knox, Mrs. Albert List, Milton Lowenthal, Roy R. Neuberger, Duncan Phillips, Nelson A. Rockefeller, David M. Solinger, and Hudson D. Walker. The Friends were responsible for acquiring some of the most spectacular paintings and sculptures represented in the collection. Without works such as Edward Hopper's Second Story Sunlight, David Smith's Lectern Sentinel, Franz Kline's Mahoning, Willem de Kooning's Door to the River, and Stuart Davis' The Paris Bit, as well as more than a hundred others purchased by the Friends, the Whitney today would not have a collection of such high caliber, particularly in the area of abstract art.

In addition to Mrs. Whitney's donations, the Museum's holdings have been greatly enriched through the generous gifts of other major collectors. Each of these contributions has indelibly marked the Whitney's overall collection with a distinctive, personal character. Among the most important of these collectors were Howard and Jean Lipman. Beginning in the 1960s, they donated an extraordinary selection of more than one hundred sculptures, creating one of the strongest museum collections of post-World War II American sculpture. Among the Lipmans' gifts was a large group of works by Alexander Calder and Lucas Samaras, as well as masterpieces by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Nevelson, and George Segal. In 1987, the Museum received more than sixty works, primarily post-1945 painting, from the Lawrence H. Bloedel Bequest. These include highly significant canvases by Milton Avery, William Baziotes, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Fairweld Porter. Most recently, the Museum's late trustee Charles H. Simon left the Museum seventy-five pieces, including seventeen paintings and watercolors by John Marin. Now, thanks to Simon, the Whitney collection encompasses the full range of Marin's achievement, both in oils and watercolors, from the turn of the century until the artist's death in 1953.

As young artists, Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh began showing their art in the 1920s at the Whitney Studio Club, the Museum's predecessor, and both continued to exhibit their work at the Museum. In appreciation of the Whitney's enduring support of their art, Josephine Hopper and Felicia Marsh, the artists' widows, made substantial bequests of their husbands' works to the Museum. Today, the Whitney holds the world's largest collection of Hopper's art, consisting of more than twenty-five hundred oils and works on paper. The Museum's Marsh collection is unparalleled-nearly two hundred works in all media, among them a number of the artist's best-known paintings, such as Twenty Cent Movie and Why Not Use the "L"?

Despite its realist origins, the Whitney Museum has long sought to assemble a collection that would offer a comprehensive picture of twentieth-century American art through a cross-section of artists working in a range of styles. Although the collection is characterized by its breadth, it is equally recognized for its in-depth commitment to the work of a number of artists. In addition to the Hopper and Marsh collections, the Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum, ranging from the ever popular Circus and Surrealist-inspired pieces of the 1940s to large-scale mobiles and stabiles. Other in-depth concentrations include major holdings by Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Burchweld, Stuart Davis, Gaston Lachaise, Louise Nevelson, and Agnes Martin.

The Whitney Museum has added nearly one-third more exhibition space for its collection through the renovation of its landmark Marcel Breuer building. The more than ten new galleries provide the Museum with its first opportunity to exhibit highlights from its Permanent Collection on a permanent basis. In addition to a historical overview of American art to 1950, the installation features individual galleries devoted to the works of Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, and Georgia O'Keeffe. We hope that the works presented in this volume will serve as an incentive to see the originals.

Adam D. Weinberg

Curator, Permanent Collection