Author's Note | Introduction |
01 Why Duchamp signed the urinal "Mutt"_ "Fountain", 1917
02 Young Painters Who Went Out_Before Impressionism, 1820-1870
03 Capturing a Fleeting Moment_Impressionism, 1870-1890
04 Leaving the Impressionist Nest_Post-Impressionism, 1880–1906
05 The Man Who Changed the Art World_Cézanne, 1839-1906
06 Primordial Cry_Primitivism, 1880-1930/Fauvism, 1905-1910
07 Dissecting and Reassembling the Plane_Cubism, 1907–1914
08 New Showman Marinetti_Futurism, 1909-1919
09 Kandinsky, who drew echoes_Kandinsky/Orphism/Déuil Reiter, 1910-1914
10 Russian Geniuses_Absolutism/Constructivism, 1915–1925
11 Mondrian's Red, Blue, Yellow_Neoplasticism, 1917-1931
12 Republic of Intellectuals_Bauhaus, 1919–1933
13 Flying Youth in the Art World_Dadaism, 1916-1923
14 Mysterious, Strange, and Eccentric Art_Surrealism, 1924-1945
15 Bold gestures and emotional brushstrokes_Abstract Expressionism, 1943-1970
16 Art as a Commodity_Pop Art, 1956-1970
17. A Head-on Clash of Ideas_Conceptual Art/Fluxus/Arte Povera/Performance Art_After 1952
18 Untitled_Minimalism, 1960-1975
19 Imitation_Postmodernism, 1970-1989
20 Artists Who Made Themselves Brands_Art Today, 1988-2008-Present
Acknowledgments | Locations by Work | List of Plates | Index

The one book that will blow away your fear of museums!
Tate Gallery Director Will Gomperts's Storytelling on Modern Art

Handy without the dense annotations and lengthy lists of materials.
Moments of the Big Bang of Modern Art Vividly Unfold

“There are already many excellent contemporary art history books on the market.
I have no intention of comparing it to such orthodox academic books.
If I had one ambition, it was to write an objective and vivid book.
The story about modern art is very cool.
“I hope that if readers read this book and go to a modern art museum, they will feel less scared and more interested than before.” From “Author’s Note”

"A Bold History of Modern Art" covers the birth of modern art, starting with the 19th-century Impressionist works, and continues with contemporary art, including Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" and Damien Hirst's "Shark," vividly telling the stories hidden in masterpieces through the eyes and mouths of the artists themselves.
Will Gomperts' art history lectures, which flow naturally with the narrative flow, help readers understand modern art, which was once difficult to understand, with much greater ease.

What are you looking at?

Interest in contemporary art is also growing in our country.
Last year, world-renowned contemporary artists such as Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, and the Chapman Brothers (Dinos Chapman and Jake Chapman) visited Korea, and this year's 'Yayoi Kusama Exhibition' also attracted a large crowd.
But what are they really seeing?

"What are you looking at?" is a book that provides an answer to this very question.
During his seven years as director of the Tate Gallery, a world-renowned modern art museum, author Will Gomperts constantly saw visitors simply staring blankly at the artworks on display, shaking their heads and turning away.
Even Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the world-renowned Tate Gallery in London, is sometimes at a loss.
The author says that this kind of reaction to modern art is natural.
However, this does not mean that we can dismiss all modern art as fraud and give up appreciating it.

Will Gomperts says that to understand and enjoy modern or contemporary art, rather than trying to evaluate whether it has value as a work of art, we must first understand the process by which such a work was created.
For example, in the case of Canadian artist Jeff Wall's photographic work "The Ruined Room," it becomes much easier to understand the work once you know that it is a sophisticated postmodern recreation of Eugène Delacroix's "The Death of Sardanapalus."


The author says that contemporary art is like a game, and even if it seems incomprehensible at first glance, it can be approached much more easily if you know the basic rules and regulations.
In "Canticle of Love" by the Italian painter Chirico, who was greatly influenced by Magritte, a rubber glove hangs next to a Greek statue and a train passes behind a green ball.
When you realize that this is a 'mix and match' game using illusions, you can feel the anxiety and loneliness inherent in the picture.
And the rules and regulations of this time can be inferred through the history of modern art.
For this reason, in "A Bold History of Modern Art," he illuminates 150 years of modern art history, encompassing the cultural, political, and social backgrounds of the time.


Great scenes from modern art history, vividly alive and moving

The book begins with Duchamp purchasing a Bedfordshire toilet in a store with his close friends Arensberg and Stella.
Duchamp moved the purchased urinal to his studio and painted it with black paint as 'R.
He gave it a title, wrote the pseudonym and date 'Mutt 1917', and submitted it to the American Independence Exhibition held in 1917.
In just a few hours, an ordinary urinal was reborn as "Fountain," a work that left its mark on modern art history.
The reason Duchamp chose a urinal as the subject of his work was because he wanted to emphasize that artists should first capture the image they want to express and then think about how to give it meaning, rather than choosing colors or techniques to provide aesthetic pleasure.
Duchamp's interpretation had a great influence on performance artists such as Josef Beuys, who were active from the late 1950s onwards, and they created not only the imagery but also the means themselves.


In this way, the author has created an engaging storytelling that follows the flow of history by adding the influence of the times on their works and their relationships with other fellow painters.
The author explains that the Cubist technique of breaking down a single plane into several pieces was influenced by Einstein's theory of relativity, and that the emergence of the 'bourgeoisie', the newly wealthy middle class, spurred a shift from the 'Barbizon School', which expressed outdoor rural landscapes using the colors of natural light, to the 'Impressionists', which captured everyday landscapes.


The scenes from modern art history captured by Will Gomperts are all vibrant.
From the scene of the banquet Picasso prepared for Henri Rousseau to the story of Picasso visiting the Stein siblings' apartment, which was bustling with artists, and being inspired by a wooden sculpture Matisse was holding, and becoming absorbed in primitivism, the book allows readers to more easily and interestingly understand the history of modern art through the eyes, mouths, and thoughts of artists.
The author's desire to eliminate the public's vague fear and boredom of modern art shines throughout the book, to the point where he deliberately learned stand-up comedy and planned and presented a show on the theme of modern art at the Fringe Festival.
Even the part about abstract painting, which is often the most difficult for viewers, is made exciting by Will Gomperts' wit.


"Big Bang Moments" in Modern Art History: A Challenge to the Mainstream by the Non-Mainstream

In "The Bold History of Modern Art," scenes of fierce competition, factionalism, jealousy, and conflict between genius artists appear.
Unlike Van Gogh, whose artistic value was recognized only after his death, Picasso rose to stardom among avant-garde artists after moving to Paris in his teens.
But even he, when faced with Matisse's work, is overcome with strong jealousy and competitiveness.
In order to earn the title of "the greatest living painter," artists often challenge mainstream painting methods by making major changes to their painting style or risking being relegated to the fringes. Interestingly, there are always patrons who recognize these marginalized artists.
The Impressionist painters' establishment in the history of modern art would not have been possible without the vision of their patron, the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.
Durand-Ruel, who understood the rapidly changing tastes of the public at the time, provided a market for talented painters who had not received permission or recognition from the academy, and helped them to pursue their creative activities without interference or financial difficulties.
His role as an art dealer would later lead to Peggy Guggenheim's patronage of abstract painters such as Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi.


When a new star emerges, the established star has no choice but to give up his or her place. This history of the non-mainstream becoming mainstream and then giving up that spot to a new non-mainstream star offers another insight to modern people.
Impressionism emerged as a rejection of the style of the academic painters who only painted still lifes in their studios, but they had soon become “a mainstream part of French cultural life, just like the opera and, ironically, the Académie,” and gradually began to disintegrate after their last exhibition in Paris in 1886.
Punk culture, represented by Maurizio Cattelan, also originated from a sense of rejection and resistance to the older generation.
Meanwhile, in postmodernism, ‘imitation’ emerges as a new technique.
Rather than rejecting all the results of the older generation, including existing painters, he expressed his own consciousness that distorted existing perspectives by accepting or borrowing them.


By examining the history of the non-mainstream's challenges and imitations toward the mainstream, we can easily understand how the works of today's contemporary artists, such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, who compete with their own brands, came into being, starting with the Impressionist works that opened the door to modern art.
The reason why art history, which can easily be perceived as boring, still holds meaning for modern people is because some of the ways in which it was recorded in history are repeated and are spreading and unfolding even at this very moment.