In a series of incisive and insightful essays, the book offers an expert gaze to the various movements in the history of 20th and 21st century art, from the French Fauves and Cubists, the Italian Futurists, German Expressionists, and the Bauhaus to Neue Sachlichkeit and Surrealism. Other chapters are devoted to artists during the First World War and the period of National Socialism. In later chapters the more recent art of Beuys, Judd, de Kooning, and Polke comes head to head with contemporary works by Pipilotti Rist, Zoe Leonard, Neo Rauch, and Thomas Hirschhorn. With its excellent selection of masterpieces, this guide presents the full spectrum of artistic expression reflected in the Bavarian State Painting Collections’ Sammlung Moderne Kunst (Modern Art Collection) which ranks among the very best in the world. Milestones of art have been on show in the collection’s galleries at the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich since 2002. Besides the largest suite of works by Max Beckmann in Europe, the collection boasts remarkable paintings by Kandinsky, Kirchner, and Picasso, major works by Bacon, Baselitz, and Warhol, photography by the likes of August Sander to Jeff Wall, as well as pieces by contemporary artists working in painting and media art.