This roll-call of British artists confirms the dominance and excellence
of British art across five centuries, from Blake toBanksy, Turner to
Tracey Emin. This highly readable and informative collection of the best
of British art showcases magnificent portraits by Thomas Gainsborough
and Stanley Spencer; landscapes by J. M. W. Turner and David Hockney;
satire by William Hogarth and Gilbert & George; sculpture by Henry Moore
and Rachel Whiteread; and the latest works by Grayson Perry and Damien
Hirst. Each artist is presented in a double-page spread that features a
major work, details from the work, a brief biography and fascinating
insights into the artist's life and times. Lucinda Hawksley's engaging
survey compares the skill of the Elizabethan miniaturists and the
magnificence of the High Victorians with the grit of post-war British
modernists and the best of the Young British Artists, whose fearless
approach to controversial themes make them worthy inheritors of the
great traditions of British art.