• A controversial and fascinating look at the contemporary global art scene - from Britain to China, South Africa to Cuba
• Asks the big questions that need asking about what underlies contemporary art - who really sets the agenda and who really benefits from the global boom in contemporary art?
• Thoughtful and incisive, this book will change the way you see contemporary art
• The author has been Paul Mellon Center Fellow at the Tate Gallery, assistant editor of the New Left Review, tutor in Contemporary Art and Theory at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing. He is currently Lecturer in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art

   
Contemporary art has never been so popular - but what is 'contemporary' about contemporary art? What is its role today, and who is controlling its future? 

Bloody toy soldiers, gilded shopping carts, and embroidered tents. Contemporary art is supposed to be a realm of freedom where artists shock, break taboos, flout generally received ideas, and switch between confronting viewers with works of great emotional profundity and jaw-dropping triviality. But away from shock tactics in the gallery, there are many unanswered questions. Who is really running the art world? What effect has America's growing political and cultural dominance had on art?

Julian Stallabrass takes us inside the international art world to answer these and other controversial questions, and to argue that behind contemporary art's variety and apparent unpredictability lies a grim uniformity. Its mysteries are all too easily explained, its depths much shallower than they seem. Contemporary art seeks to bamboozle its viewers while being the willing slave of business and government. This book is your antidote and will change the way you see contemporary art.