Few regular venues for the display of contemporary American art existed before 1826. In that year, the National Academy of Design in New York began a series of annual exhibitions featuring works by 200 to 300 artists, and for decades afterward this venerable institution led the way in introducing important new talent to the art world. Until the advent of Modernism in the early 20th century, the Academy remained one of only a few venues to regularly exhibit contemporary art. Rave Reviews explores the role that these exhibitions played in the development of American art criticism and the dissemination and marketing of American art. This is the first book to combine essays on contemporary art criticism written by experts for a general audience with illustrations of many of America's best loved masterpieces. It includes artists such as Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Eakins, and John Sloan. Eight essays outline the development of criticism and place it in the larger context of the history of American art. Primarily a richly illustrated history of 19th- and early 20th-century American art criticism, with an emphasis on taste and patronage, Rave Reviews gives readers a fresh look at the art world between 1876 and 1925. 9 1/2 x 12 trim. 181 illus. (77 color). LC 00-064311 DAVID B. DEARINGER is Chief Curator at the National Academy of Design Museum. He has written and lectured widely on a variety of subjects in American art and teaches art history at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Other contributors are Avis Berman, Margaret Conrads, William H. Gerdts, Trudi Grace, Kenneth Myers, and Sarah Moore.