By the end of the 1960s a revolution had taken place in the perception and practice of art in Europe and North America. The cultural, social, and political context of this change reflected the desire for social transformation expressed in clashes with authority, such as the protests against the Vietnam War, that signaled a counterculture's defiance of established values. This book, the first detailed account of developments centered around the conceptual art movement, highlights the main issues underlying visually disparate works dating from the second half of the 1960s through the end of the 1970s. These works questioned the accepted categories of painting and sculpture by embracing a wealth of alternative media and procedures. Traditional two- and three-dimensional representations were supplanted by a variety of linguistic and photographic means, including installations that brought into play the importance of presentation and site. Through close examination of individual works and artists, Anne Rorimer demonstrates the pervading desire to redefine the characteristics of what was once accepted as truly visual in order to dispel earlier assumptions and offer other criteria for seeing. She surveys the most prominent names and movements in the art of the late 1960s and 1970s to form a coherent picture of an era of pioneering art that prefigured many of the themes and concerns of today. Artists whose works are discussed in depth include Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Gilbert and George, Sol LeWitt, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Smithson, Daniel Buren, and Michael Asher. Forerunners of the period such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Piero Manzoni, Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, and Fluxus are also included. 280 b/w illustrations.