An illuminating guide to history’s most influential and inspiring artists – from Michelangelo to Frida Kahlo – and how they can teach us to see the world more clearly. How did the greatest artists in history look at the world through new eyes? And what can we learn from the imagination, boldness and originality of their art? From the allusive frescos of the Renaissance to the cool irony of conceptual art in the 20th century, this is the ultimate guide to the greatest artists of the human age.

Curator and writer Catherine Daunt interweaves the lives and loves of these great artists with moving and enlightening descriptions of their most famous and important works. This book takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through the greatest art of all time, and shows us how we can understand and interpret them.

Daunt re-examines the canon, traditionally dominated by Western, white and male artists, and makes space for major figures from other cultures and traditions, as well as those who have been traditionally overlooked because of their gender or class. Every artist in this book has made a revolutionary contribution to art, changing the way that we view, depict and navigate our world.