cover image An American Celebration: The Art of Charles Wysocki

An American Celebration: The Art of Charles Wysocki

Charles Wysocki, Betty Ballantine. Workman Publishing, $29.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-89480-942-2

Wysocki is a faux naif artist who lives in California but whose favorite territory for his art is homey old New England, with all its antiques, fall colors, snow scenes and picturesque barns. In an introductory note, he describes the production of a book of his workthis handsome collection has 200 of his pictures in full coloras the third stage in a career plan that began with calendars and moved on to the ""limited edition fine print market.'' He adds that the essence of his work is nostalgia, and that he revels in ``cleanliness, neatness, order.'' His sense of color is sophisticated, his designs are flat and repetitive; the whole effect is of a jazzed-up, acrylic Currier & Ives vision of the pasta Disney sort of America. Almost any one of these images, blown up a bit, would make an ideal Americana calendar picture (and that is in fact the name of his calendar series). If ever there was an artist for the time of Reagan, Wysocki is it. The pictures are well reproduced, and there is a sympathetic background text by Betty Ballantine. November