Required Texts (for purchase)

David Cottington, Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2005) link to Amazon.com
Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, 2nd Edition, (UC Press, 2012) link to Amazon.com

Recommended/Starter Texts (on Lauringer reserve)

Crow, Thomas E. The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. (Yale University Press, 2004)
Alexander Dubadze and Suzanne Hudson, eds. Contemporary Art: 1989 to the Present. (Wiley-Blackwell,  2013)
Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, Themes of Contemporary Art, 3rd Edition. (Oxford, 2013)
Jonathan Fineberg, Art since 1940: Strategies of Being. (Prentice Hall, 2000)
Hal Foster, et. al.  Art Since 1900: 1945 to the Present (Second Edition) (Vol. 2). (Thames and Hudson, 2011)
Julian Stallabrass, Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2004) Lauinger E-book

Below are two series of book publications on various topics/movements in contemporary art.  The Phaidon series has excellent images; the Documents series offers more extensive readings.  Most titles are available in the Lauringer Library stacks.

Themes and Movements (Series published by MIT Press)  link to Amazon
Whitechapel Documents in Contemporary Art (Series published by MIT Press) link to Amazon