One of the obvious difficulties in developing a general account of art since 1945 is its closeness to the contemporary period. As yet art historians have not settled on an overarching label for the period (as with terms such as the Renaissance or the Romantic era). One of the most-useful ways of thinking about the period since World War II, however, is in terms of notions of Modernism and postmodernism. Before embarking on a historical survey, it will therefore be useful to sketch out the implications of these key terms. The term modernism poses an immediate problem because it is ...(100 of 73439 words)