This book is the BBC arts editor’s unashamedly populist take on what modern art is about and why something that was once viewed as “a bad joke” is now “respected and revered”. Although Gompertz ventures back to pre-impressionism, he begins with Marcel Duchamp, whose infamous “porcelain pissotière” changed the course of modern art in 1917: “art could be anything as long as the artist said so”. Ever since “Duchampian mindgames” have dominated the art world and prompted countless debates that begin: “Is it art?” Today such questions are passé: we live in the age of “artertainment”. Art is cool and the art world is booming. As Andy Warhol once said: “good business is the best art”. Despite its subtitle, this is actually an ambitious book. Translating a visual medium into language (even with occasional illustrations and Pablo Helguera’s delightful cartoons) is a big ask for any author. But Gompertz takes up the challenge with immense gusto, and the result is a hugely enjoyable romp through the story of modern art.
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