Artistic modernism. To most of us it would seem a separate universe with its own esoteric intention and logic. What Lars Holger Holm shows in this essay, however, is how intimately the development of various modern artistic idioms, and their theoretical underpinnings, have been linked to concomitant social revolutions and to the highly politicised, theoretical, even racial agendas, entertained by people in the highest places. He also demonstrates how big money has thoroughly perverted art and artists, turning the latter into simple con men performing their charades to a whole world of spectators, manipulated by financial institutions, press, politicians and the media alike into believing that the contemporary art scene really ought to have some kind of meaning... And it does. Only, it"s not artistic but exclusively financial and political. Lars Holger Holm was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Apart from being a prolific writer on a variety of subjects, and with a solid background within cultural media, he is also a performing classical violinist and a translator. A number of his books are available through Arktos, including The Owls of Afrasiab, a historical novel on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and Homo Maximus, a historico-philosophical essay comprising a discussion of the phenomenon of civilisation.