Almost a half century ago, the painter Willem de Kooning said: "There's no way of looking at a work of art by itself; it's not self-evident-it needs a history, it needs a lot of talking about." The great works of modern art get talked about in this highly literate narrative overview, which traces modernism's radical essence-from its origins in the late 19th century right through the 1990s-with thoroughness, zest, and an engaging sense of adventure.

he Revised Third Edition of this popular text contains four substantial new chapters-illustrated by some 200 new plates, most in full color-depicting "a new fin de sicle almost exactly one hundred years after the revolutionary works of Czanne, Seurat, Gauguin, and van Gogh left no doubt that the art of the 20th century would be unlike anything known before."

725 photographs, 468 in full color, 8 5/8 x 11 3/8"

SAM HUNTER is emeritus professor of art history at Princeton University and a noted critic and historian of modern art. He has written numerous books, including Abrams' The Museum of Modern Art: The History and the Collection. He lives in Skilman, New Jersey.

JOHN JACOBUS, a highly regarded authority on architecture, is a professor at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

DANIEL WHEELER is an author, editor, and translator of art books and a recognized expert on modern art.