"This volume brings together for the first time seventy-five of Peter Schjeldahl's pieces for The New Yorker, covering subjects drawn from a broad canvas of the history of art - from ancient Greece, Mexico, and Byzantium, through Raphael, Rubens, and Rembrandt, to Bruce Nauman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and John Currin. These writings seek out, with precision and economy, the essence of the individual artist or work, but they never lose sight of the bigger picture: What is beauty? What does it mean to be an American artist? What does the art we produce and admire tell us about ourselves?"--BOOK JACKET.