I am grateful to Steven Gerrard at Acumen who first suggested this project, and has been a source of support throughout. The book has been much improved by suggestions from two anonymous readers, to whom I owe many thanks. There are several places where the argument was either improved or corrected outright. I am grateful to Gillian Rose for introducing me to the work of Nicolas Bourriard, to the late Charles Harrison for discussions of Rothko, to Jason Gaiger for discussions about the contemporary arts, and to Jon Phelan for discussions around Chapter 7. It will be evident how much I owe to the writings of Richard Wollheim and Malcolm Budd, the latter not always explicitly acknowledged and whose work is particularly evident in Chapter 2. Chapter 1 draws on an excellent forthcoming book by Dominic Lopes – Beyond Art – and I am grateful to him for sight of the manuscript. I also draw on an earlier book of his in Chapter 3. It is a pleasure to record my thanks to Jane Collins – and not only for providing me with the glorious room in which most of this was written. It is particularly important, given that my views on the matters that follow are not always widely shared, that I take responsibility for all errors, particularly any about which people have tried and failed to change my mind. Finally, it is a great pleasure to dedicate this book to Edward Winters and Vanessa Perry, in whose company I have spent many happy hours looking at pictures, listening to music and generally hanging out.