Contemporary art is a vast and complex field representing artists, ideas and trends from every imaginable cultural and geographical background. This book introduces the art of our times by taking the reader through a tour of some 70 examples from the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Thematic chapters present artistic categories, concepts and propositions that offer a path toward understanding the different subjects, forms, styles, purposes and techniques of contemporary art. Some, such as portraiture, are long-standing notions in the history of art; others, such as site appropriation, raise provocative questions and may be less immediately obvious. But it is the works themselves--brilliantly conceived by some of the most creative minds of our times--that make the case for embracing contemporary art in all its diversity.