Indispensable- The brainchild of Atlanta art collector Stephen M. Sessler, who edited the volume, American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship was unusual and perhaps unique among fine art books in that it was both beautiful and useful.

Despite its narrative heft and a host of very beautiful images, I can personally attest that American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship fits a backpack as readily as it adorns a coffee table. The brainchild of Atlanta art collector Stephen M. Sessler, who edited the volume, American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship was unusual and perhaps unique among fine art books in that it was both beautiful and useful.

- By Jim Balestrieri

American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship

General Editor: Stephen M. Sessler with foreword by Elizabeth Broun, PhD (Merrell Publishers, Autumn 2020). Hardback with jacket, 304 pages with 180 illustrations, $70.

Despite its narrative heft and a host of very beautiful images, I can personally attest that American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship fits a backpack as readily as it adorns a coffee table. Yet, because it was published prior to the pandemic, it seemed worthwhile to revisit it in light of the seismic shifts in the arts-not just in the market that have occurred over the past four years. The purpose of art, its role in a turbulent world, and the place and responsibilities of artists, museums and scholarship stand at the cutting edge of culture. NFTs and A.I. alone are reshaping the very definition of the word.

Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848) Landscape (Landscape with tree trunks,) 1828. Oil on canvas. RISD Museum, Providence Rhode Island, Walter H. Kimball Fund, 30.063.