Informed by new research, this rich collection of thought-provoking essays presents a fresh assessment of British Art in the Cultural Field, 1939-69, locating influential artists, movements, institutions, and individual works against the changing economic and cultural landscape to shed new light on this seminal period in British art history. International art historians explore many different aspects of the period which saw post-war austerity, decolonisation, and the birth of postmodernism Takes a variety of approaches, from the broad canvas of the political economy of art to closely attentive readings of individual artists and works, from Bacon to Stirling, and the Independent Group to Pop Art Invaluable for students and scholars of the field, as well as general readers, including the growing number of collectors of twentieth-century British art