An American Odyssey is the story of Jonathan Westervelt Warner, an entrepreneur, art collector, and philanthropist. The volume is both a record of the collection - important American fine and decorative arts - and a personality study of a warm-spirited and generous man. Warner is the chairman emeritus of Gulf States Paper Corporation in Alabama; the company was founded by his grandfather, who invented the EZ Opener brown-paper grocery bag, and subsequently run by his mother, Mildred Warner. Jack Warner started to collect art to complement the Gulf States Paper headquarters complex he spearheaded. Since 1970, the collection has become an unparalleled assembly of eighteenth-,nineteenth-, and twentieth-century American art; it also reflects Warner's strong interest in American history and his sense of patriotism and heritage.publiarq.com
Among the portrait, landscape, and history paintings in the collection are seminal works such as 'Progress' by Asher B. Durand, 'The Falls of Kaaterskill' by Thomas Cole, 'Above the Clouds at Sunrise' by Frederic E. Church, and 'Niagara Falls' by Albert Bierstadt. Also included are
works by John James Audubon, James Peale, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, and Andrew Wyeth, as well as masterworks by America's most famous craftspeople, such as Paul Revere and Duncan Phyfe. Engaging essays explore various facets of Warner and his collection: a fascination with images of George Washington and other patriotic symbols; a life-long interest in architecture; and the history of the nation as portrayed by its most important artists.publiarq.com