TESCH, JURGEN / HOLLMANN, ECKHARD
Our century has witnessed a profusion of artistic trends and developments like no other. Author of Icons of the 20th Century, Jurgen Tesch does an amazing job at reminding everyone of the works of art that have changed the world of art and that continue to influence the art world today.
Presented in chronological order, the works in this book illuminate the ever-changing conceptions of art over the last hundred years. In the Foreword part of this book, the editors express the reason why these particular works of arts (and artists) were chosen to be a part of this volume.
They mention their influence on the fact that the publics reception of art plays an important part in its development. I find that Teschs arguments for choosing these particular artists for the book are well made. To help defend his reasons for choosing these certain artists, Tesch makes a point to quote Sandro Bocola, a very successful and well known artist.
The success of an artist indicates that the public was in some way able, or thought it was able, to recognize itself in the work (or in his person), thereby identifying itself. Only the successful work reflects the consciousness of its time; this also applies when this consciousness and thus success as in the case of some pioneers lags temporally behind the work of art.
