This book represents (to me at least) a significant culmination in my work as an art historian over a thirty-year period and some of the people who have in various ways supported me – knowingly or not – might be surprised to see their names mentioned here. An ever-increasing number of them, depressingly, are also deceased and their mention is partly offered here as a sign that the books and essays they produced were important to me and might be consulted by anyone who values my contribution and wants to investigate its relationship to work by the writers and scholars who have influenced me. I should like to thank, then: Rasheed Araeen, Paula Barreiro-López, Vivienne Barsky, Kathy Battista, Al and Myra Boime, Tim Clark, August Davis, Angela Dimitrakaki, Ed D ’ Souza, Lindsey Fryer, Barry Gibbs, Christoph Grunenberg, Charles Harrison, Helen Hills, Peter and Linda Huby, Richard Koerck, Anne MacPhee, Annie Makhoul, David Oldham, Julie Sheldon, Brandon Taylor, Colin Trodd, Alan Wallach, Judith Walsh, Ren Wendong and Nigel Whiteley. Jayne Fargnoli, commissioning editor at Wiley-Blackwell, has been warmly supportive in both critical and practical terms on this and related projects – I look forward to extending this exciting and enjoyable relationship in the years to come! Bashir Makhoul – artist, historian of Palestinian art and Head of Winchester School of Art – has been a great friend and supporter, in practical and intellectual terms. If pedagogy, research and progressive politics can ever fit together comfortably in an institutional context, then WSA International offers a compelling model for it! Fred Orton read the manuscript and offered astute commentary on both its merits and lapses. He also corrected its English in many places and for that service I am extremely grateful. Fred ’ s work and deep friendship (and that of Miranda ’ s!) has really kept me going since my days as a doctoral student. Thank you! Gudrun, William, Oliver, Claire, Jim and Jules provide an indispensable part of the nest of family relationships within which this and all my other projects have been nurtured for many years now. Tom and Kate remain enthusiastic if sometimes justifiably mystified by the world of academe! Pie was a keen supporter too: thank you all. Jane Linden ’ s intellectual pugilism has always been matched by her affection and love for me. Many of the ideas and arguments that both unite and sometimes divide us have developed in and outside this book. May this conversation long continue! Thank you, sweetheart, for listening and responding. David Craven, for many years my friend and partner in lots of ventures, died suddenly as this book was nearing completion. His wide-ranging scholarship, moral and political commitment, idealism and good humour were an inspiration to me. This book is dedicated to his memory.