Chapter one: The origins of modern art - Chapter two: The break-through - Chapter three: Cubism - Chapter four. Futurims, Dada, Surrealism - Chapter five: Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee - Chapter six: The origins and development of an Art of determined relations - Chapter seven: The origins and development of an Art of Internal necessity - Chapter eight: After abstract expressionism.

"Comprehensive, authoritative, highly readble and generaously illustrated, Herbert read´s text has been rightly acknowledged as "byb far the best introduction to the subject" (Alan Brownes) and "thorough, lively and closely packed" (Hugh Casson). Here is modern painting from its roots in the work of Cézanne, through Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism and Dada in the early decades of the twentieth century, and on to Abstract Expressionismo in the 1950s. The works of Frank Stella, Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and many other are discussed and analysed by Caroline Tisdall and William Feaver in a lively final chapter that brings us up to present time an points to exiciting new developments. An indispensable reference work that bears witness to the genius of Herbert Read- artist, poet and art historian." Thames and Hudson.