The interpretation of contemporary art has always presented the critic with the hardest challenge; yet today, as new and often bewildering trends and movements come to the fore with dizzying speed, a critical engagement with the works of our own time is particularly vital. Each contributor to Interpreting Contemporary Art has looked at his chosen painting, sculpture, photograph or installation with a conviction that the work’s own importance can be enhanced by what is written about it. From the French critic Marcelin Pleynet, writing about a painting by Robert Motherwell, to the English artist and critic Victor Burgin, who chooses a photograph by Helmut Newton, the range of contributions covers a broad international field, touching upon virtually all the most significant art-forms of the present day. Anyone seeking a greater substance in writings on the art of the last two decades, going beyond the major critical orthodoxies of recent years, and who wishes to understand more about the profound links which unite the art of our own period with that of the past, will find this book full of invaluable insights into the kaleidoscope of contemporary art.

Stephen Bann is Professor in the Department of History of Art at the University of Bristol, and has published widely in the field of contemporary art. He is co-editor of Interpreting Contemporary Art (Reaktion, 1991), editor of Frankenstein, Creation and Monstrosity (Reaktion, 1994) and author of Romanticism and the Rise of History (1995) and Jannis Kounellis (Reaktion, 2003). William Allen is an art critic.