title: Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
author: Cynthia Freeland
description: `Review from previous edition So many of the questions that define us as a culture have been raised through and by the art of recent decades, that without coming to terms with our art, we can scarcely understand ourselves. Cynthia Freeland has written a very smart book, in which high<br />philosophical intelligence is applied to difficult questions raised by real works of art. It immediately situates the reader where thought and action meet, and since the issues are inescapable, it should be required reading for everyone. <br /><br /> I know of no work that moves so swiftly and with so sure a footing through the battle zones of art and society today.'<br />Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University, author of After the End of Art<br /><br />`This pocket potboiler provides some answers, a lot of questions and plenty of entertainment along the way'<br />TNT Magazine<br /><br />`a pacy and readable introduction to art history'<br />Independent on Sunday<br /><br />`admirable for its scope, compactness and exceptional clarity. Reader-friendly and thought-provoking'<br />The Independent<br /><br />`a book of simplicity and clarity that may well come to rival John Berger's Ways of Seeing as a reader's digest of the rubric of theories that make up contemporary art criticism . . . This is a valuable book for anyone perplexed by the arcane theorising of contemporary art'<br />Sue Hubbard, The Independent<br /><br />`a useful crib'<br />Guardian
zlib_text: Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
  
  
  ‘a very smart book . . . I know of no work that moves so swiftly and with so
  sure a footing through the battle zones of art and society today.’  
  Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University
  
  
  ‘Chapters on gender, money and the marketplace, and on the uses and abuses of
  “primitive” motifs in contemporary art-making are models of judicious
  clarity.’  
   _Publisher’s Weekly_
  
  
  ‘highly informative . . . Freeland’s study is clearly and enthusiastically
  written’  
  Gerald Cipriani, _Journal of Art and Design Education_
  
  
  ‘a vibrant study of a complex and contentious field of artistic endeavour and
  enquiry . . . lucid, incisive, and thought-provoking.’  
  Murray Smith, _University of Kent_
  
  
  ‘Freeland provides a unique and inclusive view of the past by discussing it
  from the vantage point of contemporary art.’  
  Lucy R. Lippard, author of _Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural
  America_
  
  
  ‘a lively, eminently readable and remarkably wide ranging discussion o