Eleanor Heartney's 'Art et Aujourd'hui' Surveys Contemporary Art Through Micro-Narratives

Eleanor Heartney's 'Art et Aujourd'hui', published by Phaidon, is a richly illustrated book that serves as both a visual compendium and a long essay aimed at a non-specialist audience. The author acknowledges a radical break between modern and contemporary art, stemming from the collapse of the modernist belief in orderly artistic progression. This has led to an 'informal state of contemporary art' characterized by postmodernism, globalization, and multiculturalism. Heartney asks how to conceive a survey of contemporary art in an era of seemingly anecdotal pluralism. She adopts the concept of 'micro-narrative', organizing the book thematically into sixteen chapters that illustrate how art addresses major questions of contemporary life. The first two chapters, 'Art and Popular Culture' and 'Art and the Everyday Object', highlight the major influence of Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. Each chapter situates the historical and theoretical context of artistic proposals, tracing connections between artists such as Warhol, Baldessari, Ruscha, Longo, and Prince. The narrative is clear and simple, ultimately presenting a rather mainstream selection of the most exhibited and often most sold art in the world. Critic Christophe Kihm questions whether this reflects the influence of the large cultural market imposed by postmodernism.