THE MODERN WORLD has witnessed cataclysmic changes in every sphere of life. Modern Art reflects these changes and discovers new forms of expression. In its revolt against the accepted standards of
early 19th-century art it has experimented in many directions.
Some modern works of art are moving or powerful at first glance, even if we may not understand them. But to some we can respond once the meaning has been ex planed. Essential to all is a searching inquisitive spirit—sometimes successful, sometimes unfruitful—but always pointing to the exciting innovations of the present time.
The 113 full-colour plates, with 91 illustrations in black and white together with a brilliant text by Norbert Lynton, make the whole world of modern art understandable.
This book explains exactly what words like 'romanticism', `post-impressionism', 'symbolism'. 'cubism', 'surrealism', 'abstract expressionism' or 'pop art' really mean. It shows clearly how an artist's experiments or the work of a group lead to exciting new developments which are quickly taken up by others.
Like the pieces in a kaleidoscope, the bewildering mass of names, movements and technical terms fall into recognisable patterns. Each new step is described, and the way in which painting, sculpture and architecture influence each other is effectively explained.
This account begins with the origins of the modern attitude to art, in the early i 9th century. The Romantic movement, with daring and colourful innovators like Delacroix and Turner, gave way to the matter-of-fact but powerful realism of Courbet and Daumier which yielded in turn to the new discoveries of the Impressionists - Monet, Degas, Renoir. The turning-point of 20th-century art is seen in the solitary work of Cézanne the 'father of modern painting'.

The book shows how the art of today has grown out of the vital movements which dominated the 19th century. It also illustrates the point that there is an art of today - sharing all the adventurousness and technical progress of the inventive and forward-looting 2oth century.