Pop Culture and Postwar American Taste

Pop Culture and Post-War American Taste examines important works and personalities that shaped the discourse on popular culture and taste in the postwar period, 1960-75.

This period saw one of the most explosive and riotously exciting art scenes--from kitsch, camp, and pop art to Warhol, Wolfe, and Carnaby Street.

The basic premise of the volume is that the postwar critique of modernism was matched with a critique of taste that used "pop" culture to undermine both traditional taste hierarchies and modernist dogma.

The critique paralleled the counterculture and other subcultures that were reflected in mainstream American culture, and its influence spread to far beyond American borders.

Contributors tackle an exciting array of subjects--the culture industry, Avant-Garde, Camp, the high art/low art debate, "vernacular" and everyday art objects, the contemporary city and Black Nationalism.

Pop Culture and Post-War American Taste is a fun and informative romp through an exceptionally fecund--and controversial period of art history.