Magician of the modern
Subtitle: Chick Austin and the transformation of the arts in America
By: / Eugene R. Gaddis.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Alfred Knopf
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 494
Subjects: Austin, Arthur Everett, 1900-1957.; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.; Art museum directors -- United States -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "The story of Chick Austin is the story, in Virgil Thomson's words, of "a whole cultural movement in one man." Becoming director of Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum at the age of twenty-six, Austin immediately set about to introduce modern art to America and to transform this conservative insurance capital into a cultural mecca that would become the talk of the art world during the yeasty years between the two world wars.".

"Here is the colorful life of Chick Austin, and as we relish his audacious career - the risks he took, the successes he enjoyed along with the inevitable setbacks - we understand what a far-reaching influence he had on the way Americans look at and think about art. Not only a portrait of an extraordinary man, this wonderfully American story gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the art world as it was then - and in many ways still is today."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [435]-472) and index.