Beginning where American art itself began - five centuries ago, with the native Americans and the first Spanish invaders in the Southwest - this book travels through to the late 1990s. It tells the story of how American artistic tradition was created: by public taste; by a landscape of unparalleled variety and richness; by a culture that stretched into dozens of foreign lands; and by a gallery of brilliant and idiosyncratic painters, sculptors and architects. Biographies, critical commentaries and anecdotes are included.