Sheds light on artistic production and the emergence of contemporary art in Armenia from the ruins of the socialist utopian project and the failure to realise the romanticised consumerism of the capitalist West.

Introduction
1 Between the ideal and a hard place: the conceptual horizons of the avant-garde in Armenia
2 The 'painterly real' of contemporary art: resurrected ghosts, living heroes and saintly saviours on the 3rd Floor, 1987-94
3 Suspending the 'painterly real': ACT's procedures of pure creation, 1993-6
4 The revenge of the painterly: national post-conceptualism, 1995-8
5 The reign of the 'painterly real' and the politics of crisis, 1999-2004
Index