PICTURE THIS CENTURY

The author of a workmanlike but traditional introduction to the history of painting (Picture This, 1990) takes a livelier approach to 20th-century art, offering two or three contrasting examples in each of 14 styles or schools, most (to some degree) representational: cubism, surrealism, pop art, etc. Some of the juxtapositions are imaginative: a Calder mobile and a Hepworth abstraction are grouped as ``Sea Sculptures,'' while Frankenthaler and de Kooning's otherwise dissimilar paintings derive some of their impact from their mammoth size; commendably, Woolf reminds readers to note a work's dimensions when considering the rather small but perfectly clear color reproductions. Among the wide-ranging inclusions: a politically oriented painting from the early USSR, with comments on art as propaganda; Western paintings inspired by ``Work and Industry'' and by war; ``Women's View,'' with an apologetic explanation for including so little by women; and ephemeral works like Christo's Valley Curtain. An intelligent survey, sure to awaken interest. (Nonfiction. 9+)