This essential compact guide to the top art destinations (and the individual artworks they feature)--from museums to outdoor murals, artist studios to sculpture parks--is for everyone who loves the arts and wants to make the most of their visits to major institutions and art sites. This jam-packed volume includes fan favorites and well-known and important artists, as well as the best examples of art from around the world that are available to see in the United States. The places and works are diverse in geography and media and represent contributions to the arts by an equally diverse and inclusive range of artists, as well as significant moments in the history of American art.

Organized by region, the book zeroes in on the best in every category featured in major institutions as well as off-the-beaten-path places that are not to be missed, including the best examples of: contemporary and modern art (from paintings to sculptures to Land Art), Old Master paintings, cave drawings, Mexican murals and WPA work, and exuberant folk art, to name just a few of the kinds of artworks and objects highlighted in the volume. For museums, the book focuses on extraordinary collections, distilling thousands of works down to a few choice selections. In every case, the book highlights artworks people can't see anywhere else, and that are worth the trip--visiting the most important rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; chapel-like spaces designed by Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly in Texas; prehistoric cave drawings in Utah; whole art-centric towns like Joshua Tree, Marfa, and Taos; and artists' studios, with their creative vitality preserved, that once belonged to Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Clementine Hunter, and Georgia O'Keeffe.