OXFORD.- Contemporary art can be baffling and beautiful, provocative and disturbing. This pioneering book presents a new look at the controversial period between 1945 and 2017, when art and its traditional forms were called into question. It focuses on the relationship between American and European art, and challenges previously held views about the origins of some of the most innovative ideas in art of this time.

Major artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, and Shiran Neshat are all discussed, as is the art world of the last fifty years. Important trends are also covered including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Postmodernism, and Performance Art.

This revised and updated second edition includes a new chapter exploring art since 2000 and how globalization has caused shifts in the art world, an updated Bibliography, and 16 new, colour illustrations.

David Hopkins is currently Professor of Art History at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of numerous books on Dada, Surrealism, and post-1945 art including Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) and Dada's Boys: Masculinity After Duchamp (Yale University Press, 2007).

The Oxford History of Art is a major series of authoritative and beautifully illustrated books by art historians. The last thirty years have witnessed a profound change in the study of art. While artists have employed startling new techniques to test old assumptions, a new generation of scholars has rejected formal approaches to breathe fresh life into the field of art criticism. Substantial and innovative, the books illuminate and debate the critical issues at the heart of art history today.