'Coffee tables everywhere are crying out for Phaidon latest tome, Art & Today. It's exactly what you want: a comprehensive overview of art from the Eighties onwards ... arresting images [...] and great prose.' GQ 'a welcome overview of today's confused art world ... a valuable reference book ... well-illustrated' Wall Street Journal 'The overarching point of Art & Today is to show how the certainties of modernism [...] gave way to the anarchy of post-modern, contemporary art. ... the book attempts to impose some welcome order and logic on the ensuing chaos (and 400 artists): no easy task when the history is happening around you. Heartney, however, proves up to the challenge: she has an accessible prose style, a profound grasp of art history, and a publishing company willing to include 560 illustrations.' Art World 'The history of contemporary art, writes Heartney (Postmodernism), a contributing editor to Art in America, offers a tapestry of stories in an innovative, intellectually vigorous and superbly illustrated survey. ...Heartney's focus is sharp and selective, and her approach complexly postmodern: the ever-proliferating universe of Matthew Ritchie's installations are discussed in the context of Roland Barthes, Cindy Sherman's photographs as Bakhtinian carnival. ... This exceptional survey will have wide appeal... in a work that's both perceptive and energetic.' Publishers Weekly

Eleanor Heartney has been a contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress for more than ten years. Her recent publications include Postmodernism (Movements in Modern Art), and Critical Condition: American Culture at the Crossroads.

- Introduction- Chapter 1: Art & Popular Culture(Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Maurizio Cattelan, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Richard Prince, Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Tom Sachs, Rachel Harrison, etc.)- Chapter 2: Art & the Quotidian Object(Jessica Stockholder, Sarah Sze, Josiah McElheny, Fischli & Weiss, Gabriel Orozco, Tony Cragg, Tom Friedman, Cornelia Parker, Katharina Fritsch, etc.)- Chapter 3: Art & Abstraction(Brice Marden, Robert Mangold, Bridget Riley, Martin Puryear, Bernard Frize, Agnes Martin, Donald Judd, James Siena, Richard Deacon, etc.)- Chapter 4: Art & Representation(Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Gerhard Richter, Luc Tuymans, Elizabeth Peyton, Peter Doig, Jeff Wall, Wolfgang Tillmans, Thomas Ruff, Rineke Dijkstra, Sigmar Polke, Martin Kippenberger, Neo Rauch, etc.)- Chapter 5: Art & Narrative(Cindy Sherman, Gregory Crewdson, Anna Gaskell, Isaac Julien, Matthew Barney, Aernout Mik, Pierre Huyghe, Ilya Kabakov, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Nan Goldin, Sophie Calle, Matthew Ritchie, etc.)- Chapter 6: Art & Time(On Kawara, Dan Graham, Joan Jonas, Douglas Gordon, Christian Marclay, Bill Viola, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pipilotti Rist, Jeremy Blake, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Tacita Dean, etc.)- Chapter 7: Art & Nature and Technology(Andy Goldsworthy, Mark Dion, Critical Art Ensemble, Christine Borland, Rebecca Horn, Lee Bul, Wim Delvoye, Orlan, Aziz + Cucher, Eduardo Kac, etc.)- Chapter 8: Art & Deformation(Carroll Dunham, Fabian Marcaccio, Ron Mueck, Yayoi Kusama, Annette Messager, John Currin, Thomas Schutte, Mike Kelley, Louise Bourgeois, etc.)- Chapter 9: Art & the Body(Marina Abramovic, Janine Antoni, Paul Mc Carthy, Nobuyoshi Araki, Jenny Saville, John Coplans, Eric Fischl, Lisa Yuskavage, Marlene Dumas, etc.)- Chapter 10: Art & Identity(Shirin Neshat, David Hammons, Barbara Kruger, Jimmie Durham, Chris Ofili, Nikki S. Lee, General Idea, Yasumasa Morimura, Kutlug Ataman, etc.)- Chapter 11: Art & Spirituality(James Turrell, Andres Serrano, Mariko Mori, Shahzia Sikander, Christian Jankowski, Ana Mendieta, James Lee Byars, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, etc.)- Chapter 12: Art & Globalism(Alan Sekula, Julie Mehretu, Cai Guo-Qiang, Alfredo Jaar, Mark Lombardi, Andreas Gursky, Michal Rovner, Walid Ra'ad, Yukinori Yanagi, Chen Zhen, Emily Jacir, etc.)- Chapter 13: Art & Architecture(Gordon Matta-Clark, Daniel Buren, Rachel Whiteread, Dan Graham, Monica Bonvicini, Vito Acconci, Isa Genzken, Marjetica Potrc, Joep Van Lieshout, Liam Gillick, Andrea Zittel, Los Carpinteros, Jorge Pardo, etc.)- Chapter 14: Art & Its Institutions(Antonio Muntadas, Lawrence Weiner, Hans Haacke, Louise Lawler, Fred Wilson, Andrea Fraser, Thomas Struth, Candida Hofer, etc.)- Chapter 15: Art & Politics(Leon Golub, William Kentridge, Maya Lin, Richard Serra, David Wojnarowicz, Jenny Holzer, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Guerrilla Girls, Martha Rosler, Tim Rollins, etc.)- Chapter 16: Art & Audience(Erwin Wurm, Carsten Holler, Francis Alys, Vanessa Beecroft, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Thomas Hirshhorn, etc.)ChronologyArtist BiographiesBibliographyIndex