This audio recording is of a lecture given at The New School on the subject of the nature and definition of art, especially in the context of the end of the modernist period in art. New School lecturers in art history John McDonald Moore and Bobbie Werblud take alternating turns discussing various artists and artworks of different periods, and conflicting opinions on good art versus bad art, fine art versus decorative art, and high art versus low art. Artists whose works are used as examples in this part of the lecture are: Constantin Brâncuși, Carl Andre, Richard Tuttle, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, William Morris, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Gustav Klimt and Jean Dubuffet. Ancient Egyptian art is also discussed.

In the second part of the recording, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Miriam Schapiro, Joyce Kozloff, Cynthia Carlson, Nicolas Poussin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Judy Chicago, Walter De Maria, Christo, and Caroline Herschel are discussed.

In the third part of the recording, the lecturers offer summations of the themes which they have been discussing, including subjective interpretations of art, the importance of quality to art, and the importance of context for modern "anti-art" and for decorative art.