It's been so long since I read this one that I can't recall its details. ( )

Covering developments in art since the 1960s, this survey looks at over 500 artists and their work. The comparatively brief text is very readable an informative as one would expect from such an authority as Edward Lucie-Smith. Following the introduction the book is divided into eighteen chapters covering various movements, styles or geographic locations including: abstraction, minimalism, neo-dada, neo-expressionism, American Realism, post-modern, neo-classic, figurative, sculpture, Latin American, Perestroika, the Far East, African and Afro-American and racial minorities, feminist and gay. The book includes notes to the text, a bibliography, chronology and an index.

The big attraction of this substantial volume of over 500 pages is the wealth of illustrations, almost all in full-colour, the rare exceptions being work that is in the original monochrome such as photographs. The illustrations run with the text and are clearly notated in the latter, so they are very easy to locate. The illustrations vary in size up to full page bleed, with the vast majority being of a good size. The quality of printing is reasonable, the colours are rich and intense, perhaps a little too intense, but they do suffer from a lack of detail in the dark areas. In total there are over 530 illustrations here.

Aside from the shortcomings of the printing quality, the overall impression is a vibrant and exciting, and of the great diversity to be found in art today. ( )