A Companion to Contemporary Art is a major survey covering the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context. Collects 27 original essays by expert scholars describing the current state of scholarship in art history and visual studies, and pointing to future directions in the field. Contains dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major themes in the art of our time: politics, culture wars, public space, diaspora, the artist, identity politics, the body, and visual culture. Offers synthetic analysis, as well as new approaches to, debates central to the visual arts since 1945 such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, the role of the artist, technology and art, and the society of the spectacle.

The emergence of the powerful work - until recently considered 'peripheral' - of African-American and regional American artists, and new trends in Latin American, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, modern African, Caribbean and Aboriginal art are all introduced and discussed, providing a world panorama of art at the end of the century.

Joselit traces and analyzes the diversity and complexity of postwar American art from Abstract Expressionism to the present clearly and succinctly in this groundbreaking survey. 183 illustrations.

"Artists, Critics, Context is an anthology of readings on American art and culture that begins in the 1940s with Abstract Expressionism and the Cold War and ends in the 1990s with the ubiquity of video installations and the broad cultural changes arising from technological developments in telecommunications and biotechnology."--Preface pg. ix.

Following a clear timeline, the author highlights key movements of modern art, giving careful attention to the artists' political and cultural worlds. Styles include Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Postmodernism, and performance art. 65 color illustrations. 65 halftones.

A classic introduction to art since the end of the Second World War, Movements in Art Since 1945 tells the story of art across all forms of media over the past seventy-five years. Revised and redesigned for the first time since 2001, this standard introduction to visual art in the postwar era examines the movements, trends, and artists from abstract expressionism to the present day. Writing with exceptional clarity and a strong sense of narrative, Edward Lucie- Smith demystifies the work of dozens of artists and reveals how the art world has interacted with social, political, and environmental concerns. This book includes detailed coverage of major developments within the artistic community, such as pop art, conceptual and performance work, neo-expressionism, and minimalist art across the globe, including Asia, Africa, and Latin America. A new chapter on art since 2000 includes discussions of work by Banksy and Ai Weiwei, as well as recent trends in art from Russia and Eastern Europe. Featuring nearly 300 images of key artworks that range from graffiti from 1980s New York to contemporary painting from China, this updated edition of Movements in Art Since 1945 is as global in its reach as art has become in the twenty-first century.

Contemporary art is increasingly concerned with swaying the opinions of its viewier. To do so, the art employs various strategies to convey a political message. This book provides readers with the tools to decode and appreciate political art, a crucial and understudied direction in post-war art. From the postwar works of Pablo Picasso and Alexander Deineka to thie Border Film Project and web-based works of Beatriz da Costa, Art and Politics: a Small History of Art for Social Change after 1945 considers how artists visual or otherwise have engaged with major political and grassroots movements, particularly after 1960. With its broad definition of the political, this book features chapters on postcolonialism, feminism, the anti-war movement, environmentalism, gay rights and anti-globiliaztion. It charts how individual artworks reverberated with enormous idealogical shifts. While emphasising the West, Art and Politics takes global developments into account as well - looking at art production practiced by postcolonial African, Latin American and Middle Eastern artists. Its case-study approach to the subject provides the reader with an overview of a most complex subject. This book will also challenge its readers to consider often devalued and marginalised political artworks as properly part of the history of modern and contemporary art.

Since 1945 the modern revolution in sculpture has gathered pace, and sculpture has now ceased to be the fixed category it once was. In recent decades the modernist idea of sculpture across the UK, America, and Europe, has been challenged, and issues such as nationalityand politics have been brought in to the arena of public discussion. In this ground-breaking account of the development of post-War sculpture Andrew Causey examines innovative and avant-garde works in relation to contemporary events, festivals, commissions, the marketplace, and the changing functions of museums. He explores the use of everyday objects and the importance of sculptural context, discussing figurative and non-figurative works, Anti-form, Minimalism, experimental form, Earth Art, landscape sculpture, installation, and Performance Art. The holistic picture of post-War sculpture which emerges establishes for the first time the key events and themes round which future debate will centre. From the pre-publication reviews: Andrew Causey weaves his way adroitly through the labyrinth of post-War sculpture ... No one else has charted the territory so comprehensively s Professor Stephen Bann, University of Kent at Canterbury stimulating and persuasive ... balances a searching analysis of the impact of institutional change, issues of sites and environment, and key critical debates with revealing commentaries on individual artists and works of art ... a discerning guide for anyone interested in contemporary art and culture. s Elizabeth Cowling, University of Edinburgh a clear guide to the various directions of sculpture and the work of sculptors in the years when modern sculpture has begun to stand in its own right as a major art form. s Sir Anthony Caro, Sculptor