| List of Illustrations | |
| Preface | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Ch. 1 | Introduction: Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary | 3 |
| Ch. 2 | Three Decades after the End of Art | 21 |
| Ch. 3 | Master Narratives and Critical Principles | 41 |
| Ch. 4 | Modernism and the Critique of Pure Art: The Historical Vision of Clement Greenberg | 61 |
| Ch. 5 | From Aesthetics to Art Criticism | 81 |
| Ch. 6 | Painting and the Pale of History: The Passing of the Pure | 101 |
| Ch. 7 | Pop Art and Past Futures | 117 |
| Ch. 8 | Painting, Politics, and Post-Historical Art | 135 |
| Ch. 9 | The Historical Museum of Monochrome Art | 153 |
| Ch. 10 | Museums and the Thirsting Millions | 175 |
| Ch. 11 | Modalities of History: Possibility and Comedy | 193 |
| Index | 221 |