Publisher's Synopsis
Surveys late-20th-century Western art to address why the notion of beauty has recently been so hotly contested and, in the 1980s and 1990s in particular, so highly politicized. Are there accepted standards of beauty, or does beauty exist solely in the mind? Is beauty eternal, or a fleeting experience subject to changing fashion and tastes? Can one find beauty in ugliness? This book argues that beauty has not disappeared from the dialogue of art and that it has persisted as an essential element in the evolution of art as the 20th century passes into history. Among the artists featured are: Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Roy Lichenstein, Agnes Martin, Mariko Mori, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, James Turrell and Andy Warhol.
