Includes bibliographical references (pages 557-616) and index.

This is the fourth volume of Irving Sandler's major history of American art since 1945. Sandler shows how, beginning in the late 1960s, new directions in art emerged - diverse postminimal styles, pattern and decoration painting, and new image painting. The 1980s brought other new tendencies - neoexpressionism and media, deconstruction, and commodity art. Sandler discusses the major and minor artists and their works; movements, ideas, attitudes, and styles; and the social and cultural context of the period. He covers postmodernist art theory, the art market, and consumer society. Unlike the previous volumes, this one also includes both American and European art and artists. Among the artists discussed are Robert Morris, Eva Hesse, Lucas Samaras, Richard Serra, Sol Lewitt, Joel Shapiro, Nancy Graves, Joseph Benys, Marcel Broodthaers, Louise Bourgeois, Hannah Wilke, Judy Chicago, Nancy Spero, Robert Kushner, Judy Pfaff, Robert Irwin, Nancy Holt, Susan Rothenberg, Robert Colescott, Jennifer Bartlett, Jonathan Borofsky, Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Elizabeth Murray, Leon Golub, April Gornik, Sean Scully, Francesco Clemente, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger, Hans Haacke, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Philip Taaffe, Adrian Piper, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Magdalena Abakanowicz. The end of the postmodern era came in the early 1990s, and Sandler charts its finale.

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