From his stance as an active and important art critic, Edward Lucie-Smith has close first-hand knowledge of the art of the 70s. In this first general survey of the decade, packed with images that are often surprising and sometimes disturbing, he sets out to analyse the development both of old forms and of new ones, and to provide a coherent framework for the general reader. He shows how 70s artists have reacted to the Pop Art, Minimal Art and Conceptual Art of the 60s, and traces a new interest in illusionism, figuration and realism. Other important new elements are the impact of feminism and ecology on the arts, the blurring of the distinction between art and craft, the impact of high technology, and the 'cultural colonialism' of modern art in the wake of Western technology. The author's method is to document rather than to judge; his task has been to select and order, and to allow the new works of the decade to convey their own excitement. But behind the objective presentation lies the author's argument that the 70s may well become known as the decade in which the very notion of an avant-garde was finally seen to be untenable. This stunningly illustrated book provides the general reader and the art lover with an authoritative guide to a confused but exciting decade. Edward Lucie-Smith is well known as a poet and art critic through his many books, articles and broadcasts. His books include Art Today, Super Realism and Cultural Calendar of the Twentieth Century, all published by Phaidon.""