Magician of the modern

"The story of Chick Austin is the story, in Virgil Thomson's words, of "a whole cultural movement in one man." Becoming director of Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum at the age of twenty-six, Austin immediately set about to introduce modern art to America and to transform this conservative insurance capital into a cultural mecca that would become the talk of the art world during the yeasty years between the two world wars.".

"Here is the colorful life of Chick Austin, and as we relish his audacious career - the risks he took, the successes he enjoyed along with the inevitable setbacks - we understand what a far-reaching influence he had on the way Americans look at and think about art. Not only a portrait of an extraordinary man, this wonderfully American story gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the art world as it was then - and in many ways still is today."--BOOK JACKET.