Frameworks for Modern Art provides a general introduction to the art of the twentieth century. The opening chapter discusses key concepts such as modernity, modernism, autonomy, spectatorship and globalisation. It is followed by four case studies, each of which is devoted to a specific artwork chosen from across the span of the century: Marcel Duchamp's Bottlerack, Barnett Newman's Eve, Ana Mendieta's Silueta series, and Yarla by the Indigenous Australian Yuendumu community. These artworks have been selected not only for their intrinsic interest, but for the way in which they open up wider questions of meaning and interpretation that are central to understanding twentieth-century art. Topics include the relation of the modernist mainstream to later postmodernist standpoints, the status of the art object, the development of a fully abstract art, the role of gender and identity in the expanded field of art and the globalisation of art practice. Frameworks for Modern Art is the first in a series of four books about twentieth-century art. Each book can be read independently and is accessible to the general reader. However, as a series they form the main texts of an Open University third-level course, Art of the Twentieth Century, which examines the fundamental changes that took place in the concepts and practices of art during the twentieth century.