How have artistic movements developed after the historical milestone marked by World War II? This book begins with an extensive introduction to the period 1850-1940, evaluating the state of the arts in Europe during the Occupation.

It then describes and analyzes all significant artistic trends in painting, sculpture, and architecture that emerged from the mid-1940s to the late 1970s. The first part includes the movements that formed in the early post-war years in Europe and America, from Art informel, geometric abstraction, op art, kinetic art, and Spazialismo to abstract expressionism, neo-dada, hard-edge painting, and post-painterly abstraction.

These artistic developments are examined in light of the shift in the center of gravity from Paris to New York, which also determined the fate of surrealism in the early post-war years. As the author shows, the new environment of the Cold War also defined the post-war conflict between representation and abstraction while solidifying the dominance of socialist realism in the countries of existing socialism.

The second part of the book initially emphasizes the emerging divide between modern and contemporary art at the end of the first post-war period. This divide is confirmed by the appearance of a series of new trends, which are described in detail, from Gutai in Japan to the Nouveaux Réalistes, the Situationists, and pop art in Europe and the USA.

Next, there is an extensive reference to new artistic genres, such as happening and performance, as well as artistic trends and groups like Fluxus, Wiener's Aktionismus, and Italian Arte Povera. The analysis of the activity of these groups, which are formed through ruptures and oscillations, is connected with the consolidation of new standards of social and economic behavior under the regime of rampant consumerism and widespread commodification.

This period culminates in a broad crisis at the end of the 1960s, which in the visual arts coincides with the formation of minimalist and post-minimalist trends and conceptual art, which are presented and analyzed in detail by the author. The second part of the book concludes with the highlighting and description of the contradictions arising from the critical stance of 1970s artists in an environment of retreat for radical social demands, within the context of a complex process of integrating new artistic movements into the institutional and economic apparatus.

In the third part of the book, finally, post-war trends in architecture are presented, ranging from the critical approach to the International Style to the advent of so-called postmodernism, while also referencing the architectural standards that prevailed in socialist countries. Spanning almost 40 years, the author describes, studies, and analyzes in detail all the determinants that historically shaped artistic developments during an extremely critical phase in the shaping of the modern world.