A Companion to Modern Art

A Companion to Modern Art offers a series of original essays that represent a wide–ranging overview of the multiple origins and uneven development of Modern Art in the modern and contemporary period.  It places particular emphasis on Modern Art s institutional display, dissemination and reception on the social, historic, political and aesthetic. Featuring contributions from a variety of established and emerging international scholars, art historians, curators, critics, artists, and educators, authors including  Whitney Davis, Annika Öhrner, Nick Stanley, Elena Stylianou, Nicos Philippou, Paul Wood and Leon Wainwright  bring fresh perspectives to the history of Modernity and Modern Art. Authors explore Modern Art s interdisciplinarity, the implications of its development for other periods, alternative temporalities and geopolitical contexts.  The writers comment on the historic and contemporary understanding of avant–garde works and exhibitions, the Western canon, migrant artists, Modern Art education, enthusiasm for primitivism, and Modern Art s disciplinary promiscuity. Readers can expect a further understanding of Modern Art s foundational philosophic ideas and practices, new assessments of key artists such as Cezanne and Picasso, as well as debates around less familiar artists. Innovative and thought–provoking, A Companion to Modern Art offers illuminating insights into alternative, multiple Modernities while reinterpreting visual language and unravelling the complex legacies of Modern Art for the contemporary world.

Pam Meecham is Professor of Museum Studies at University College London, Institute of Education, where she currently leads the MA Museums and Galleries in Education programme. She works with Doctoral students researching a range of subjects related to Modern Art and contemporary cultures in museums, galleries and heritage sites. Meecham is the co–author of Making American Art (2009) and Modern Art: A Critical Introduction (2000, 2005).