Customer Reviews

Art Today

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Better than a coffee table book(but works for that too), ARTODAY contains several features that make it desirable. The first of these being nice large clear examples - pictures. The representations of work are varied and important, the "who's who" and "must know" of the art world from 1960 on. Secondly, the writings on the work are, like the pictures, clear and to the point; expressing the concept and/or contexts of the artists or works susinctly. Finally, the artist/works/concepts have been organized into 18 catagories from "Land Art, Light and Space, Body Art" and "The Survival of Abstraction" to "The Far East". This ordering tends to contain the great variety of works by themes thus making very clear developments and interests of contemporary artists. Having clear images, text, and catagories together in this way make for a table book that is actually interesting to look at and read.

This would be a very good book for those who are interested in a general overview of contemporary art, but don't have time or resources to go in depth. For example, I personally am considering this to be one of several texts for a upper level studio art class; believing the students lacking art history credits will greatly benefit from its overview. While I feel some important artists were overlooked and it is heavily "western" it does a significantly better job than most books of its kind.

I am a big fan of mordern art. There are many books on modern arts around the world. But my favorit book on modern art is the ARTODAY. This is book is extremely well made and fun to read(well written reviews on each artists and their works). It contains so many interesting works of modern art on many different medias. Modern arts are usually hard to be seen from museums or galleries. but If you have this this book, you wouldn't have to worry about that. It is amazing how many and different art works and artists are covered in this book. I am totally in love with this book. if you think you like modern art, this is the book that you must buy.......trust me....

The compilation of artists and artworks are great. Big book, pretty well designed and full of images. Being a book from 1999, is still very useful in 2011. If you are really interested on contemporary art, you should have this book. Is a great investment.

Covering developments in art since the 1960s, this survey looks at over 500 artists and their work. The comparatively brief text is very readable an informative as one would expect from such an authority as Edward Lucie-Smith. Following the introduction the book is divided into eighteen chapters covering various movements, styles or geographic locations including: abstraction, minimalism, neo-dada, neo-expressionism, American Realism, post-modern, neo-classic, figurative, sculpture, Latin American, Perestroika, the Far East, African and Afro-American and racial minorities, feminist and gay. The book includes notes to the text, a bibliography, chronology and an index.

The big attraction of this substantial volume of over 500 pages is the wealth of illustrations, almost all in full-colour, the rare exceptions being work that is in the original monochrome such as photographs. The illustrations run with the text and are clearly notated in the latter, so they are very easy to locate. The illustrations vary in size up to full page bleed, with the vast majority being of a good size. The quality of printing is reasonable, the colours are rich and intense, perhaps a little too intense, but they do suffer from a lack of detail in the dark areas. In total there are over 530 illustrations here.

Aside from the shortcomings of the printing quality, the overall impression is a vibrant and exciting, and of the great diversity to be found in art today.

With an extensive catalog of images, ArToday gives a snapshot of the major "-isms" within contemporary art. The writing flows smoothly and is easy to understand/follow.

Overall, great collection of images but a bit basic in the descriptions. The writing is aimed at a beginner/intermediate art reader.

Artoday is so well organized and complete. it covers modern art history, artists and includes so many pictures! its insparational and innovating