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Contemporary art can be baffling and beautiful, provocative and disturbing. This pioneering book presents a new look at the controversial period between 1945 and 2015, when art and its traditional forms were called into question. It focuses on the relationship between American and European art, and challenges previously held views about the origins of some of the most innovative ideas in art of this time.
Major artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, and Shiran Neshat are all discussed, as is the art world of the last fifty years. Important trends are also covered including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Postmodernism, and Performance Art.
This revised and updated second edition includes a new chapter exploring art since 2000 and how globalization has caused shifts in the art world, an updated Bibliography, and 16 new, colour illustrations.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: The Politics of Modernism: Abstract Expressionism and the European Informel
- 2: Duchamp's Legacy: The Rauschenberg-Johns Axis
- 3: The Artist in Crisis: From Bacon to Beuys
- 4: Blurring Boundaries: Pop Art, Fluxus, and their Effects
- 5: Modernism in Retreat: Minimalist Aesthetics and Beyond
- 6: The Death of the Object: The Move to Conceptualism
- 7: Postmodernism: Theory and Practice in the 1980s
- 8: The 1990s: Fin de siècle?
- 9: Art and the New Millenium
- Notes
- Further Reading
- Timeline
- Galleries and Websites
- Picture Credits
- Index
About the author
David Hopkins is currently Professor of Art History at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of numerous books on Dada, Surrealism, and post-1945 art including Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) and Dada's Boys: Masculinity After Duchamp (Yale University Press, 2007).
Summary
A beautifully illustrated, new edition of this pioneering study of art since 1945. Focussing mainly on the relationship between American and European Art, this book offers an up-to-date introduction to the major artists and movements of recent years.
Additional text
The intelligent and sophisticated synthesis of key debates makes this volume invaluable. This skilful re-integration of developments in the art of post-war Europe with that of America is impressive and controversial
Report
Beautifully produced with colour illustrations, this is essential reading for anyone who has been bemused or intrigued by contemporary art. PD Smith, The Guardian
