Giorgio de Chirico

Robert Rosenblum is a critic, curator and art historian, whose writings helped establish the reputations of Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. In this collection he explores the meanings, movements and paradoxes of 20th-century American art.

An interpretation of the personalities, historical forces and intellectual paradigms that created Surrealist art, this work traces the conflict between the secular and sacred forces from prehistory to the 20th century.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, Second Edition is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to Western art from Ancient Greece to the present day. It offers over two thousand entries on painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, covering not only artists and their work, but also patrons and dealers, collectors and writers, materials and techniques, and museums and galleries. For this new edition much new material has been added on twentieth-century art, including subjects such as Neo-Expressionism and the Turner Prize. Written in clear, lively prose, this invaluable reference maintains a careful balance between fact and appraisal. In its pages, we encounter artists ranging from Polyclitus of Argos to Leonardo da Vinci, from Grandma Moses to Mary Cassatt, from Max Beckmann to Andy Warhol. Here also are periods and movements, including the Classical period, the Renaissance, the Ancients, Impressionism, the Ash-can School, and Cubism, as well as techniques and styles such as encaustic painting, encarnado, lithography, cabinet painting, and blot drawing. For this abridgement, Ian Chilvers has retained all of the essential features of the original while adding new entries and eliminating the more peripheral articles. By presenting the information in a pithier format, he is able to focus more sharply on Western and Western-inspired art. The dictionary also provides a very helpful cross-referencing system for names, art media, styles, and terms. Art enthusiasts of every kind will find this entirely reliable and highly readable volume indispensable.

From Renoir and Picasso to Red Grooms and Guerrilla Girls, this is the most useful reference work on twentieth-century art available in a one volume. Compiled by Ian Chilvers, the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Art, it is both authoritative and accessible, with generous use of anecdote and clear explanations of many potentially confusing terms. Providing broad coverage of painting, sculpture, drawing, and the applied arts, the dictionary has major entries on the important movements and styles of the twentieth century, including Dada, Cubism, Surrealism, Art Deco, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Body and Performance art, and Neo Expressionism. In addition there are entries on art schools and galleries, exhibitions and prizes, terms and techniques. The biographies feature not only artists but also collectors, critics, dealers, and patrons. And though the dictionary concentrates on the great names, it is not confined to the mainstream of modern art, featuring many artists working in a more popular tradition as well as interesting peripheral figures (such as the forger Elmyr de Hory). This up to date and informative guide is an essential reference for anyone interested in modern art.