Synopsis: A colourful and comprehensive excursion through Modern Art from Impressionism to 2004. It is accompanied by a website where the publishers have provided links to other relevant art websites.

Review: This book does the job it claims to… mostly. It is called an Introduction to Modern Art, and as an introduction, it is very good. A paragraph is devoted to each of the main movements in modern art, arranged chronologically, and it’s lavishly illustrated with examples of the best known works. The writing style is informative and very accessible, and the author has done a good job of summing up some quite difficult concepts in plain terms. At the back is a very useful timeline and some handy biographies of the major artists mentioned. It is entirely based on Western art.

Where this book is trying to be different from all the other basic guides to modern art is by calling itself ‘internet-linked’. Having internet access isn’t essential; I found the book a good stand-alone guide. However, the blurb on the page suggests that it ‘contains descriptions of websites specially chosen to take you further into the subject.’ It doesn’t. Every page of the page has a box which tells you to go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com, and it’s from there you can access further websites. There are no codes that need to be entered; but it does involve clicking through three pages before you can enter the page number of the book. Then it provides one or more links to relevant websites. I found this useful in that it eliminates the need for a lot of searching. On its own, it’s a handy guide that scratches the very surface of the main themes in modern art; the websites it offers online are an interesting addition to it. But if you already have a good basic introduction to modern art in your school library, I’d suggest that this book doesn’t offer anything new. If, however, you don’t, this book is a good place to start, particularly for KS3. It doesn’t have the depth needed for KS4 or 5; but then, it claims only to be an introduction, and does at least have the websites to back it up for further study.

2008-05-26