Paul Rotterdam is an Austrian artist and associate professor at the Visual Art Center at Harvard University and at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. This volume publishes his writings, combining scholarly comprehension and hands-on artistic experience. It shows Rotterdam to be a shrewd observer of contemporary and historic issues.

This book features interviews, essays and lectures about topics such as Realism and Abstraction, art and nature, beauty and myth. Rotterdam's texts often question the conditions for progress in art and make a case for the necessity of the artist's preoccupation with past traditions. In so doing, they astutely challenge new ways of seeing art and the world. Born in Austria in 1939, Rotterdam has lived and worked in the United States since 1968. He is a highly renowned abstract painter whose works are shown in numerous international museums. As one of the most influential art specialists of his generation, he lectures on drawing and 20th century art.