By Donna Gustafson with essays by Karal Ann Marling, Ellen Handy, Lee Siegel, and Eugene R. Gaddis
Published in 2001 by the AFA in association with the MIT Press
184 pages, 155 illus. (100 in color), 9 × 11 ¾ in.
Paper • ISBN 1-885444-22-2 • $19.95 (MIT)
Cloth • ISBN 0-262-07228-9 • $42.00 (MIT)

In the twentieth century, many American artists were fascinated with the subject of the circus, seeing it as a microcosm of modern, transient, urban society. While some focused on the darker side of circus life, the danger inherent in many of the performances and the allure of the grotesque, others memorialized circus stars, or invested the performers with symbolic attributes. This catalogue features approximately 100 works depicting the circus in twentieth-century American art, including work in a range of mediums from such artists as Diane Arbus, Alexander Calder, Charles Demuth, Walt Kuhn, Mary Ellen Mark, and George Segal.