De tweede helft

In De tweede helft Ad de Visser tells the story of the visual arts of the last fifty years, the second half of the twentieth century. Without avoiding the proverbial complexity of the material, he manages to make the array of movements and individual artists clear and knows to keep his story alive avoiding art-historical clichés and not averse to personal preference and critical commentary. In four chapters, each preceded by a paragraph in which society and culture are briefly characterized, he presents post-1945 art on the basis of the four post-war generations and their specific ambitions and preoccupations: the virtuous forties and fifties, the provocative sixties , the 'therapeutic' seventies and finally the noncommittal but seductive eighties and nineties.

The second half is a refreshing manual for every art lover and a thorough study book that art education has long looked forward to.