9080488828.
This book is the outcome of a unique project. It attempts to sum up the current state of European painting in the work of more than 30 artists from 17 different countries. Each artist was proposed by a critic resident in the country concerned, and his or her suggestions were then vetted by another resident expert. From the long list of 68 painters thus generated, slightly less than half were chosen on the advice of the entire panel. The emphasis is on artists who already possess strong local reputations but who are not as yet internationally known. The book, which is planned to be the first of a series, offers precious information, unavailable elsewhere, to both private and institutional collectors.

It is also, at a time when painting is often said to be under threat, a unique survey of its present condition. As the internationally-known critic Edward Lucie-Smith points out in a sparkling and polemical introduction, there is a surprising degree of unanimity in what the members of this new generation of European artists have to say about themselves. The new philosophy of painting, and a spirited justification for its continuing relevance, can be found in a fascinating series of artist's statements. As well as being an up-to-the minute guide to collectors, the book offers a new philosophy for painting at the beginning of the 21st century.