In this series of essays written over the past twenty years, Roger Kimball, managing editor of the New Criterion and an art critic for the London Spectator, illuminates some of the chief spiritual itineraries of modern art. His wide range of subjects includes Vincent van Gogh, Clement Greenberg, the Barnes Foundation, Matthew Barney, Mark Rothko, and the Whitney Biennial, as well as the way in which Gilbert and George demonstrate the psychopathology of current cultural influences.

Roger Kimball is managing editor of The New Criterion and an art critic for the Spectator (London). He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, Times Literary Supplement, National Review, Public Interest, Modern Painters, Art and Antiques, and Museum and Arts Washington. He lives in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

Christopher Lane is an award-winning actor, director, and narrator. Earning rave reviews on every book he has narrated for Blackstone, he received the coveted Audie Award in 2004. He lives in Washington, D.C.