This century has in many ways been a period of reckoning, a time during which you constantly experience the sensation of losing your overview and sense of control, forcing you to come to terms with the fact that nothing is as self-evident, as you once believed it to be, not even the peace and harmony, which for many years has prevailed in our privileged part of the world. In his poem “Onkran morgun” (Some morning) by Jóanes Nielsen, from the poetry collection Brúgvar av svongum orðum frá byrjanini av øldini (Bridges of hungry words from the beginning of the age) from 2003, he states that everything fixed will loosen, and this depiction captures the very essence of this era so full of opportunities whilst also marked by threats and shifts, which in varying ways have changed our ways of living and thinking – also in terms of art.

Today’s dynamic state of change, when everything is shifting, dissolving, and old authorities are constantly challenged, is hardly the best foundation for an art history book. At least not if this were intended to be one of the old canonizing kind of art history books, where a wide selection of artists and movements are described and analyzed in chronological order in accordance with a broad vision and an apparently clear hierarchical overview of who belongs where. This seems a rather futile effort when the very foundation for this book is constantly shifting and has been doing so throughout the century, causing old systems to lose their control and authority – even the monograph itself with its otherwise firm and seemingly permanent form. But this is how it must be when everything moves so quickly that encyclopedias and other works of reference are rendered antiquated even before they are finished printing.

This work sets out with a long essay on significant societal and cultural events that have come to characterise the 21st century both locally and internationally. This is then followed by a description of artistic pioneers – old as well as young – whose influence has carried on well into our time, as well as artistic turning points that have moved us forward. The book concludes with a thorough analysis of the art of over fifty artists and includes an epilogue that sums up significant movements as well as the era itself.