ArtQuake by Susie Hodge is a volume in the Culture Quake series and does a remarkable job of showing how these 50 works of art, some well-known some lesser known, "disrupted" the art world and in many cases the world beyond.

Like the other book in the series, FilmQuake, this is not about whether the reader or even Hodge "likes" each work. This is about how each one responded to its moment in history and what influence it had on what came after. Also just like the other volume, this will appeal both to novices as well as those more knowledgeable in art history. Anyone who claims they are so "versed" that either book wasn't that interesting to them is posing, and doing so horribly. Those who are knowledgeable or "versed" are always looking at ways of making new connections between works, between a work and its historical context, and in framing the larger history in slightly different ways. It isn't even always about "new" information but about juxtaposing known information with other things that might not always be discussed together.

These entries make for a type of history of modern art if read straight through but the book would also make a nice companion for those times when you want to read something but don't have time to jump back into that novel you're reading or the nonfiction book that is making a larger argument that requires some mental commitment every time you read. This is like the book of short stories or essays that you can pick up whenever you have a few minutes, then you can think about what you read when you go back to whatever you have to do.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )