Public Offerings presents breakthrough works by some of the most important and challenging artists to emerge in the past decade, exploring the conditions, consequences, and contexts that surround their first ''public offerings.'' The book and the exhibition it accompanies provide a critical overview of contemporary art at the end of the twentieth century. Youth is a highly relevant factor in the development of these works, just as it has been in the advancement of contemporary music and literature, and even the sciences. Young artists are now among today's most critically discussed and visible practitioners. All graduated from prestigious art programs in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan, and their success has raised the profile of art schools and the issue of the programs' increasingly important role. While confident in their conception, execution, and theoretical vigor, the works included here also represent a fragile moment in the artists' development. The art clearly demonstrates the impact of the particular art school and regional identity. Along with the complex network of traveling critics and curators, international exhibitions, regional and global art journals, and ambitious galleries and collectors, art schools have emerged as important crossroads for recent art's shared themes and discourses, and have served as both incubator and platform for new art. A series of specially commissioned essays examines the art school's role and the relation of an international art world to local practice. Also included are critical texts examining the artists and individual works, accompanied by full-color reproductions. Among the artists included are Matthew Barney, Julie Becker, Damien Hirst, Sharon Lockhart, Steve McQueen, Chris Ofili, Jason Rhoades, Diana Thater, Yutake Sone, Rachel Whiteread, and Jane and Louise Wilson. 220 color and 80 b/w illustrations. With essays by: Yilmaz Dziewior Ronald Jones Midori Matsui Lane Relyea Paul Schimmel Howard Singerman Jon Thompson