By the end of the 1960s, defiance of traditional art values reflected the demand for social, political and cultural transformation. This book provides the first detailed and authoritative account of artists and works that challenged received ideas about painting and sculpture by embracing alternative procedures and media. A revolutionary turning point in the story of art, it introduced the new ways of seeing that define the art of the 21st century.

Accounts of forerunners of the period such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Piero Manzoni, Joseph Beuys and Fluxus are followed by detailed discussion of works by, among many others, Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Smithson and Daniel Buren.