Customer Ratings:

• Simply seminal. Summary : a fantastic resource illustrating and discussing a huge range of contemporary paintings, painting styles and painters
  
  Reviewer : aging fine art student
  
  I love this book and refer to it constantly. It is a treasure trove of images with comprehensive information about each painter and her or his work. The narratives, contributed by international artists, critics, curators and academics, cover influences and statements about the paintings as well as biographical information.
  
  It s definitely a fairly detailed reference work rather than a coffee table book (if you want something to leave open looking trendy and knowledgeable something like Hoptman s Eight Propositions might be a better buy). As a large, thick, heavy paperback I find it doesn t lie open well. The text is dense in a tiny font, making it quite difficult to browse, although the layout is attractive and the images large and very well reproduced.
  
  I put off getting this for some time wanting to make sure that the books that I bought were those that I would enjoy and use regularly. I find that I go back to it several times a day at the moment for themes, research, techniques and the language of the current art scene. Sounds like its time I got a new book - but this really is a seminal work and exceptional value for money.

• Vitamin D (Themes)
• Painting People: The State of the Art
• Art Now (Taschen 25)
• The Drawing Book: A Survey of Drawing - The Primary Means of Expression
• Making Contemporary Art: How Today s Artists Think and Work