Painting’s complex history receives a new consideration in this fresh presentation of paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection, including new acquisitions from the last five years. Selections from cultures around the world over nearly two millennia provide a rich, inclusive account. Arranged chronologically—irrespective of each work’s geographical origin—this comprehensive publication underscores the dramatic differences in style and technique occurring over time not only between but within cultures.

The book features a dazzling array of paintings, including an ancient Egyptian funeral portrait, a wall mural from the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, Chinese handscroll paintings from the Yuan dynasty, a seventeenth-century triptych icon from Ethiopia, and works by artists such as Caillebotte, Cassatt, Cezanne, Degas, Duncanson, El Greco, Guston, Homer, Hopper, Johns, Lichtenstein, Magritte, Matisse, Mitchell, Monet, Morisot, Motley, Munch, O’Keeffe, Picasso, Pippin, Pollock, Rembrandt, Richter, Rivera, Rubens, Sargent, Seurat, Thomas, Tiepolo, Tosa Mitsuoki, Turner, Van Gogh, Varo, Warhol, Whistler, and Wood. Contemporary artists featured include David Hockney, Kerry James Marshall, Wanda Pimentel, Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, and Pope.L.