Art criticism is spurned by universities, but widely produced and read. It is seldom theorized and its history has hardly been investigated.

Here, James Elkins surveys the last fifty years of art criticism, proposing some interesting explanations for these startling changes.

Here, Elkins argues that alchemists and painters have similar relationships to the substances they work with. Both try to transform the substance, while seeking to transform their own experience.

This deeply personal account of emotion and vulnerability draws upon anecdotes related to individual works of art to present a chronicle of how people have shown emotion before works of art in the past.

The influence of Conceptual Art continues to be felt today in the work of such controversial young artists as Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst." - back cover.

Here are the common artifacts of life, often misunderstood and largely ignored, brought into striking focus.

Newman examines the relation of Prince's work to images appearing in illustrated magazines, advertising, and television during the artist's formative years and argues that the vintage TV series The Twilight Zone is crucial to understanding ...

Fifty Key Texts in Art History is an anthology of critical commentaries selected from the classical period to the late modern.

This is the first discussion of its kind, involving not only questions within Renaissance scholarship, but issues of concern to art historians and critics in all fields.