A journey through the history of modern art through 200 paintings, sculptures, photographs and conceptual pieces full of risk and innovation. With detailed descriptions of the works and analyses of the main movements, this book is a rigorous compendium of the ideas and artistic creations that challenged the academicist canons, attacked the established and burst with force with an avant-garde proposal.

Modern issues

An exhaustive review, milestone by milestone, of a groundbreaking artistic movement.

According to many art historians, the adventure of modern art began in the 1870s in Paris, when a group of artists, the Impressionists, began to paint with rapid, imprecise brushstrokes. Instead of bombastic heroic scenes, they portrayed everyday life and escaped the influence of the traditional circle of gallery owners by organising their own exhibitions.
Once they had overcome academicist principles, nothing could stop them. In a constant desire to challenge, innovate and inspire, new artistic styles followed one after another: Symbolism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, Abstract Art, Renewed Realism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalist Art and Conceptual Art.
This indispensable compendium illustrates the irrepressible energy of modern art (from 1870 to 2000) through an introductory analysis and a year-by-year listing of the most revolutionary works of art, those that, by breaking barriers, challenged the established canons. With detailed descriptions of the works and their artists and reviews of the most relevant and influential movements.

About the editor

Hans Werner Holzwarthes is a book designer and editor of numerous publications, mainly on contemporary art and photography. For TASCHEN he has produced a series of monographs in Collector's Edition, including those on Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen, Ai Weiwei, the SUMODavid Hockney. A Bigger Book, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, in XXL format.

Publisher: Taschen