"Art in France developed in ways that were of paramount importance to twentieth-century art during the four decades between the Exposition Universelle of 1900 and the invasion of France in 1940. This innovative and informative study of those developments breaks new ground by setting them within the frameworks both of their unstable social, political and intellectual world and of the official and 'independent' institutions of art.".

"Christopher Green starts with the great Paris Exhibitions of 1900, 1925 and 1937, as representations of France, and a critical examination of modern movements - Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism. He moves on to the questions raised by artists' relationships with the State, the critics and with the rapidly expanding dealer system, as well as the problems met by foreign and women artists making careers in France.

In this context, he is able to produce a new analysis of developments in the work of artists ranging from Matisse to Picasso, and from Duchamp to Dali, one that pays attention to the reactionary as well as the radical.

Packed with fresh interpretations, the book tackles major historical and critical themes: modernity, both in its technical and social forms; tradition and the idea of the nation around the twin traumas of the Great War and the rise of Fascism; and the assault against the ideals of modernity and tradition launched by artists committed to "the primitive" and to the new, challenging notions of identity and sexuality derived from psychoanalysis.".

"This book can be a starting point for newcomers to this important field and at the same time opens the subject up in new ways that will engage the more expert reader too."--BOOK JACKET.