A Companion to Contemporary Art is a major survey covering the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context. Collects 27 original essays by expert scholars describing the current state of scholarship in art history and visual studies, and pointing to future directions in the field. Contains dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major themes in the art of our time: politics, culture wars, public space, diaspora, the artist, identity politics, the body, and visual culture. Offers synthetic analysis, as well as new approaches to, debates central to the visual arts since 1945 such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, the role of the artist, technology and art, and the society of the spectacle.

A Companion to Contemporary Art is a major survey covering the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context.* Collects 27 original essays by expert scholars describing the current state of scholarship in art history and visual studies, and pointing to future directions in the field.* Contains dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major themes in the art of our time: politics, culture wars, public space, diaspora, the artist, identity politics, the body, and visual culture.* Offers synthetic analysis, as well as new approaches to, debates central to the visual arts since 1945 such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, the role of the artist, technology and art, and the society of the spectacle.

List of Figures ixNotes on Contributors xivSeries Editor's Preface xviiiAcknowledgments xixPart I: Introduction 11 Writing Contemporary Art into History, a Paradox? 3Amelia JonesPart II: Decades 171945-602 "America" and its Discontents: Art and Politics 1945-60 19Gavin Butt1960-703 The 1960s: A Decade Out-of-Bounds 38Anna Dezeuze1970-804 "I'm sort of sliding around in place . . . ummm . . .": Art in the 1970s 60Sam Gathercole1980-905 Pictures and Positions in the 1980s 83Howard Singerman1990-20056 1990-2005: In the Clutches of Time 107Henry M. SayrePart III: Aesthetics 125Formalism7 Form and Formless 127Caroline A. JonesArt as Idea8 Re-Thinking the "Duchamp Effect" 145David HopkinsBeauty9 Regarding Beauty 164Margaret MorganPart IV: Politics 189Avant-Garde10 Avant-Garde: A Historiography of a Critical Concept 191Johanne LamoureuxActivism11 Facture for Change: US Activist Art since 1950 212Jennifer González and Adrienne PosnerCulture Wars12 "The Senators Were Revolted": Homophobia and the Culture Wars 231Jonathan D. KatzArt and Its Public(s)13 Crowds and Connoisseurs: Art and the Public Sphere in America 249Grant KesterPart V: Identity/Subjectivity 269The Artist14 The Writerly Artist: Beautiful, Boring, and Blue 271Carol MavorDiaspora15 Diaspora: Multiple Practices, Multiple Worldviews 296Steven NelsonFeminism16 Power and Pleasure: Feminist Art Practice and Theory in the United States and Britain 317Laura MeyerQueer17 Queer Wallpaper 343Jennifer DoyleRace/Ethnicity18 Implications of Blackness in Contemporary Art 356Pauline de SouzaEmbodiment19 The Paradoxical Bodies of Contemporary Art 378Christine RossPart VI: Methods/Theories 401Marxism20 A Shadow of Marx 403Neil Cummings and Marysia LewandowskaPoststructuralism21 Poststructuralism and Contemporary Art, Past, Present, Future . . . 424Sarah WilsonPostcolonial Theory22 "Fragments of Collapsing Space": Postcolonial Theory and Contemporary Art 450Mark CrinsonVisual Culture23 Visual Culture Studies: Questions of History, Theory, and Practice 470Marquard SmithPart VII: Technology 491Mass Culture, High/Low24 "That's All Folks": Contemporary Art and Popular Culture 493Nick MirzoeffPhotography/Index25 Image + Text: Reconsidering Photography in Contemporary Art 512Liz KotzSpectacle/Appropriation26 Imagine There's No Image (It's Easy If You Try): Appropriation in the Age of Digital Reproduction 534Dore BowenDigital Media27 "Life-like": Historicizing Process and Responsiveness in Digital Art 557María FernándezIndex 582