As artists push further and further beyond their, and our, comfort zones, this book aims to help decipher the bizarre and often intimidating aspects of modern and contemporary art by exploring twenty works of art in terms of seven ‘keys’. History, biography, aesthetics, experience, theory, scepticism and the market represent conventional ‘modes of existence’ for every artwork discussed, but in a fascinating variety of ways. Simon Morley shows how twenty well-known but little-understood works of art can serve as useful springboards not only for understanding each other, but also for appreciating works by the same artists, and from the wider world of art in general.
Rather than proceeding on the basis of familiar art ‘movements’ or ‘-isms’, Morley focuses on just twenty individual works of art, from Matisse’s The Red Studio to Doris Salcedo’s Untitled. Representing a variety of media, styles, subjects and intentions, being the creations of men and women of different periods and places, coming from disparate social and ethnic backgrounds, these works show a rich diversity in modern and contemporary art.
About Simon Morely
Simon Morley is currently Assistant Professor in the College of Arts, Dankook University,
Republic of Korea. He has been a lecturer and tour guide at such UK museums as Tate,
the National Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and
Camden Arts Centre. A regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines, he is
also the author of Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art and The Sublime:
Documents in Contemporary Art.
