A survey of one of the most controversial epochs art history, the Modern Movement, this text combines a critical eye with a historian"s insight into wider trends. It reflects the changes that have swept across the art world since 1960, challenging the old assumptions and certainties. As it reviews the worldwide view, the book"s central argument is that the art world is no longer hierarchical but plural, and that its structures - if they exist at all - are provisional. The author charts the progress of contemporary development and points out their sources and interrelationships.