This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

A survey of one of the most controversial epochs art history, the Modern Movement, this text combines a critical eye with a historian's insight into wider trends. It reflects the changes that have swept across the art world since 1960, challenging the old assumptions and certainties. As it reviews the worldwide view, the book's central argument is that the art world is no longer hierarchical but plural, and that its structures — if they exist at all — are provisional. The author charts the progress of contemporary development and points out their sources and interrelationships.

Creative personalities are always fascinating, and to learn something new about the 20th and 21st centuries' greatest artists—whether eccentric or sober, outspoken or reclusive—is compelling. 105 artists are presented in lively short biographies, and each entry is illustrated with important works, self-portraits, and photographs. Clearly grouped according to style and era are modern and contemporary art’s pioneers, from Picasso and Duchamp to Louise Bourgeois and Jean-Michel Basquiat. New entries on rising stars such as Marlene Dumas and Zhang Xiaogang bring the book into the twenty-first century. 101 color, 172 black-and-white illustrations.