Contemporary Art. Modernism

Valeria Kosiakova — candidate of cultural studies, associate professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities "Higher School of European Cultures", founder of the "Punctum" center, researcher of visual culture. Dmitry Pozdnyakov — specialist in the history and theory of cinema and visual art, cultural scholar. Before you is an engaging art detective story about revolutions and transformations in art. The authors not only listed the names of famous artists, movements, schools, and their corresponding characteristics, but also explained how and why art has changed over the past century and a half. Why is contemporary art so different from the artistic pursuits of times past? How have conceptions of beauty transformed, and how has the role of the artist in society changed? What will help us understand contemporary art? How does it differ from the current art being born before our eyes, here and now? The relevant analytical theories and various interpretative approaches discussed in the book will help the reader gain a critical distance for a panoramic view of the visual culture of the 20th century.