Nine landmark essays in international thinking on art, several of which never previously published in Italy, illustrate the contours and theoretical core of the twentieth century artistic debate. The book aims to provide the reader with an authoritative map for understanding the key turning points in this artistic period. The issues dealt with are the ‘flash points’ of the debate: the abandonment of the idea of art as a reproduction of the manifestations of the visible world in favour of art as the expression of a specific quality of emotion; the call to remember the social premises of art even when, as in abstract work, it would be easy for this vision to be lost; the techniques of artistic reproduction, the loss of aura and the relationship between modern art and the masses; the avant-garde as the only possibility of survival for the elite culture; the definition and critique of Modernism; the new dada, pop art, the definition of post-modern art. The anthology ends with several pages taken from by Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, which deal with the question of modern art insofar as it relates to autonomy and lack of autonomy vis-à-vis reality. Several of the essays in this volume appear for the first time in Italian.