Artworks The Progressive collection

The concept of corporate art does not generally quicken the pulse, but the provocative and even edgy works making up the Cleveland-based Progressive Casualty Insurance Company's art collection certainly are the exception. Highlighting nearly 300 works from a collection exceeding 6500, this publication casts in strong relief one of the country's most impressive groupings of American and European contemporary art. Chronologically arranged, it leads us from the collection's 1970s acquisitions of works on paper (by, e.g., Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and David Hockney) to its acquisitions through the early 21st century of paintings, sculpture, and site-specific works (by, e.g., Andres Serrano, Andy Yoder, and Sharon Louden). No such comprehensive catalog devoted to the Progressive's collection exists, and this work covers its history as well as its art. Full-page, oversized color reproductions that seem to leap from the printed page are augmented by four essays (including a superb entry from Dan Cameron, director of visual arts, Contemporary Arts Ctr., New Orleans) delineating the collection's strengths, scope, and goals. Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison writes the foreword. Recommended for all libraries with contemporary art collections.-Kraig Binkowski, Yale Ctr. for British Art Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.