Curator Robert Storr reminds the reader of the strengths of some of this work -- by Otto Dix, Lucien Freud, Francesco Clemente, and even Pablo Picasso -- and of the enduring popularity of such artists as Pavel Tchelitchew, whose Hide and Seek, along with Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World, are among the public's favorite pictures. Storr also discusses taste and vulgarity and their implications, both past and present, for institutions like The Museum of Modern Art that are thought of as canon-builders.