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Modern Art. A History from Impressionism to Today

Modern Art. A History from Impressionism to Today - Main image
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Category: Architecture

A blow-by-blow account of groundbreaking modernism.

Most art historians agree that the modern art adventure first developed in the 1860s in Paris. A circle of painters, whom we now know as Impressionists, began painting pictures with rapid, loose brushwork. They turned to everyday street life for subjects, instead of overblown heroic scenes, and they escaped the power of the Salon by organizing their own independent exhibitions.

After this first assault on the artistic establishment, there was no holding back. In a constant desire to challenge, innovate, and inspire, one modernist style supplanted the next: Symbolism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, abstract art, renewed Realism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimal and conceptual practice.

This indispensable overview traces the restless energy of modern art with a year-by-year succession of the groundbreaking artworks that shook standards and broke down barriers. Introductory essays outline the most significant and influential movements alongside explanatory texts for each major work and its artist.

Customer Reviews (5.0 / 5 · 5 reviews)

Alexander S. ★★★★★

The layout is clean and the reproductions are sharp enough to make you pause on every page. I picked it up to check one chapter on Impressionism and ended up reading straight through to the postwar section.

Hannah E. ★★★★★

The 1860s Paris starting point gives the whole survey a real narrative drive, so you're not just flipping through pretty pictures but following the actual chain of artistic rebellion. The reproductions are crisp enough to study brushwork closely, which matters for a book this dense with key works.

Emily K. ★★★★★

I was a bit worried a survey this broad would skim too fast, but it actually slows down to walk you through each movement's key works, which made the whole Impressionism-to-today arc finally click for me.