The Shock of The New

This authoritative, lively book, based on the BBC Time-Life television series, provides a comprehensive survey of the birth and development of modern art and an updated discussion of the European and American art movements in the 70s and 80s including minimalist and public art, 70s American painting, German Neo-Expressionism, art by women, and environmental art. "The Future that Was," the final chapter, is completely rewritten and updated. 75% of the 275 illustrations in the revised edition are in 4-color.

Publishers Weekly

The author of The Fatal Shore and Time magazine's art critic here presents a greatly expanded version of a PBS television series on modern art, and includes some 270 color illustrations. Although he frequently deals in generalities, ``choice anecdotes, telling characterizations, witty observations flow from his pen,'' lauded PW . The ``chapters bristle with apt insights.'' (Aug.)

Robert Hughes has been an art critic for Time magazine since 1970. His eight-part BBC/Time-Life television series, on which this book is based, has been broadcast throughout the United States on public television. He has received the Franklin Jewett Mather Award for Distinguished Criticism from the College Art Association of America twice, and he has authored the Art of Australia (1966); Heaven and Hell in Western Art (1969); and Nothing If Not Critical (1990), a collection of essays on art and artists.