Art / American Books

An informative guide to the ins-and-outs of collecting folk art. The text is organized by region and features 181 biographies of new as well as long-established artists, with some guidance on how to evaluate their art. The book is illustrated with color plates of 155 works and includes a directory of the most important private and public collections of folk art.

William Boyd writes the wholly fictional (but eerily believable) life of an imaginary (and mediocre) American artist named Nat Tate, who rises in the art world simply through hype and opportunism. When Boyd's satire was first published, it was taken seriously by the art world as a biography of a real character.

This cultural survey examines the long-held practice of purchasing and collecting of Native American-made objects.