随着艺术家们越来越多地跳出他们和我们的舒适区，这本书的目的是帮助破译现代和当代艺术的奇异和往往令人生畏的方面，通过探索二十件艺术作品的七个关键。历史、传记、美学、经验、理论、批评和市场代表了每一件讨论过的艺术品的传统存在方式，但方式各不相同。西蒙·莫利(Simon Morley)向我们展示了20件**但鲜为人知的艺术作品，它们不仅可以作为相互理解的跳板，还可以作为欣赏同一位艺术家的作品的跳板，还可以作为欣赏来自更广阔的艺术世界的作品的跳板。

从马蒂斯的《红色画室》到多丽丝·萨尔塞多的《无题》，莫雷只关注了20件独立的艺术作品，而不是在熟悉的艺术运动或主义的基础上进行创作。这些作品代表了多种媒介、风格、题材和意图，是不同时代、不同地域的男女创作，来自不同的社会和民族背景，具有丰富的现当代艺术多样性。

As artists push further and further beyond their, and our, comfort zones, this book aims to help decipher the bizarre and often intimidating aspects of modern and contemporary art by exploring twenty works of art in terms of seven keys . History, biography, aesthetics, experience, theory, criticism and the market represent conventional modes of existence for every artwork discussed, but in a fascinating variety of ways. Simon Morley shows how twenty well-known but little-understood works of art can serve as useful springboards not only for understanding each other, but also for appreciating works by the same artists, and from the wider world of art in general.

Rather than proceeding on the basis of familiar art movements or -isms , Morley focuses on just twenty individual works of art, from Matisse s The Red Studio to Doris Salcedo s Untitled. Representing a variety of media, styles, subjects and intentions, being the creations of men and women of different periods and places, coming from disparate social and ethnic backgrounds, these works show a rich diversity in modern and contemporary art.