Customer Reviews

Concepts of Modern Art: From Fauvism to Postmodernism (World of Art)

5 star:		(2)
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3 star:		(2)
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This book is a compilation of essays on all major art movements of the 20th century. It offers a comprehensive review with very elaborate information on movements, ideas, artists and artworks. Furthermore, it explains the artists' concepts of art, thus enabling the reader to understand why and how artworks were created. The book is very helpful and detailed. It is a must for all those interested in 20th century art, both for students/enthusiasts and experts on the subject.

This is not an easy book to write, because the modern art world has gone wild with multiple radical approaches to what used to be a relatively easy-to-understand subject. Thus I have no objection to a multply-authored text. And it is expected that some of the chapters will be better than others. OK.
My objection is to the pictures. They are all in BLACK AND WHITE! This, in a field where the impact of color is so important! Almost as bad is the fact that all the pictures are bunched at the back, so, each time a picture is cited in the text, you have to go to the back to find this. And many are too small.
I would have expected better from such an experienced art history publisher

This book gives you a dynamic look at the movements of the 20th century. Some of the entries are a bit lacking and stale. The transition between different writing styles proved unfavorable, but the book is useful as reference. I do not recamend it as an introduction to modern art. It focuses more on the events that shaped movements as opposed to the idealogy of them. If you are already familiar with modern art, this book will prove useful in building on a foundation of knowlage. I found "The 20th century Art Book" useful in reading this book. It helps compensate for the black and white pictures.

This was a used book and it was very cheap I am actually surprised at how good of a deal I received on such a well kept book! There was some writing inside but it was actually helpful and lightly done in pencil. Absolutely no complaints :)