A concise new history of modern painting provides an indispensable reference on the complexities and characteristics of the medium.

While acknowledging the legacy of Herbert Read's classic 1959 study, A Concise History of Modern Painting, in the World of Art series, scholar and artist Simon Morley locates the origins of modern art much earlier than Read, in the rise of Romanticism and the beginning of the industrial age.

Structured loosely chronologically by period, the focus is on both individual artists and movements, analysing works within a broader context: stylistically, historically, geographically, as well as from perspectives of gender and ethnicity, themes that recur throughout the chapters.

Generously illustrated, this comprehensive and diverse overview includes artists such as William Blake, Édouard Manet, Hilma af Klint, Kazimir Malevich, Willem de Kooning, Amrita Sher-Gil, Faith Ringgold and Kehinde Wiley.

In addition, the guide includes an appendix in the form of questions that the reader can ask in relation to the artists and ideas discussed, in order to reconsider the works from a contemporary perspective.

Publisher: Thames and Hudson