Louisville Modern: An Era in Art tells the story of the art scene in the Louisville, Kentucky-Southern Indiana area from the 1940s through the 1960s. It is both a personal account and an art-historical overview of a period that many categorize now as Mid-century Modern.

The book begins with the story of Madeline Covi, who experienced that scene firsthand. Her essay is followed by biographies of some of the artists who played major roles, some of whom went on to international renown and some of whom are still active. It was an interesting period. The art community was made up of woman’s club members, so-called society matrons, “Sunday painters,” housewives, commercial artists, university kids and their teachers, African Americans, GI Bill veterans and refugees from German oppression. It was a story that needed telling.

Warren and Julie Payne are private art dealers and consultants in Louisville, Kentucky, specializing in paintings and prints produced in Kentucky, their immediate region and in the Deep South. Their online-gallery inventory includes works on paper from the United States, Britain and France produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Paynes have taken part in many exhibitions over the last two decades and curated several; have produced eight catalogs and two books,  Louisville Modern: an era in art and Clear as Mud: Early 20th Century Kentucky Art Pottery; and worked on E.C. Pennington's seminal Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression.