This compelling and comprehensive survey introduces an exceptionally rich, fascinating and complex art. Edward Lucie-Smith discusses major subjects: Magic Realism, Expressionism and other concepts shared with Latin American literature; the great muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco; the interaction of politics, society and art; the continuing interest in folk art; and the dialogue between avant-garde European and North American movements and ‘indigenist’ thinking in the work of artists such as Wifredo Lam, Matta, Rufino Tamayo and Frida Kahlo.

In this revised edition, a new final section presents the leading artists of today, some of whose work in the fields of interactive installation, photography and video art reveals a continent embracing the experimental and the new.