Edward Lucie-Smith - Artoday

This text is an illustrated survey of movements in world art since 1960. The Modern Movement - unchallenged for the previous six decades - has lost its dominance, but has not been replaced by any single new orthodoxy. Artists, critics and the public alike are now confronted by a situation of unprecedented variety and complexity. Lucie-Smith's earlier "Art Today" was a survey of post-war art. This revised edition reflects the changes that have swept across the art world since 1960, challenging all the old assumptions and certainties. As he reviews the new work worldwide, his central argument is that the art world is no longer hierarchical but plural, and that its structures - if they exist at all - are provisional. He charts the progress of contemporary developments and points out their sources and interrelationships. The work of nearly 500 outstanding contemporary artists is analyzed and illustrated in colour.