Seven Keys to Modern Art

Simon Morley is a visual artist and until 2023 was Assistant Professor in the College of Arts, Dankook University, Republic of Korea. As well as being author of three titles for Thames & Hudson – Modern Painting, Seven Keys to Modern Art and Writing on the Wall – he is also the author of The Simple Truth: The Monochrome in Modern Art and By Any Other Name: A Cultural History of the Rose. He has lectured at such museums as Tate, The National Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and Camden Arts Centre, and has contributed to numerous publications including Third Text, World Art, the TLS, The Burlington Magazine, Art Monthly, The Art Newspaper, Contemporary Art and the Independent on Sunday.

Contents The Red Studio, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) • Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, a Guitar and Newspaper, 1913, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) • Black Square, Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) • Fountain, Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) • The Empty Mask, René Magritte (1898–1967) • New York Movie Theater, Edward Hopper (1882–1967) • Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) • Head VI, Francis Bacon (1909–1992) • Black on Maroon, Mark Rothko (1903–1970) • Big Electric Chair, Andy Warhol (1928–1987) • Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field, Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) • The Pack, Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) • Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson (1938–1973) • Osiris and Isis, Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) • Untitled (I shop therefore I am), Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) • A Book from the Sky, Xu Bing (b. 1955) • The Messenger, Bill Viola (b. 1951) • Maman, Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) • Correspondence, Lee Ufan (b. 1936) • Untitled, Doris Salcedo (b. 1958)