Designed as a core text for introductory courses in recent contemporary art history, this book is a purposefully compact overview of themes in the recent history of contemporary art. This text reflects a paradigm shift occurring in the visual arts from a formalist way of teaching studio art to a method using more diverse and open-ended concepts. An emphasis on the process of interpretation seeks to engage the reader in actively considering how ideas, forms, materials, processes, and purposes all contribute to the meanings that viewers construct. (For surveys of contemporary art that begin earlier, say after WW II, the book works as a companion text.) The Second Edition adds a new chapter theme on science and its connections with art, as well as new artist profiles so there will be two in each chapter. This edition also features 21 full-color and 108 b/w reproductions of a wide array of contemporary art pieces.