Lives of the Imaginary Artists in Cold War California
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-83963-9 (ISBN)
This book explores how a group of real California artists created imaginary artists, engaging with the political climate of the Cold War era and frustrating the discipline of art history. They employed pseudonymity, obfuscation, anonymity, (auto)biografiction, imaginary portraiture, heteronymity, role-playing, doubling, and alter ego. Often laced with humor, these exploits facilitated stylistic experimentation, provoking reactions from art viewers and governing authorities alike, and disrupting reliance on documentation and attribution within art history.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Ed Kienholz, Walter Hopps, Robert Alexander, Wally Hedrick, George Herms, and Wallace Berman activated imagined and secret identities, provoking reactions within a conservative environment gripped by communist paranoia. As political concerns shifted in the 1960s and 1970s to movements for peace and equality, artists including Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, Lynda Benglis, Larry Bell, Judy Chicago, Lowell Darling, and Eleanor Antin redirected these tactics to probe the rise of celebrity culture and the administrative state. These practices also became the precursor for later interventions by Bruce Conner, Asco, Allen Ruppersberg, Senga Nengudi, and others.
Considering a compelling range of visual material, including paintings, sculptures, and performed intrusions as well as publications, postcards, and advertisements, Monica Steinberg examines why these imaginary artists appeared when and where they did—and to what ends.
Monica Steinberg is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. She has contributed to exhibition catalogs published by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Imago Mundi Collection, and the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art, and her articles have appeared in Crime Media Culture, Art Journal, Panorama, Oxford Art Journal, Art History, American Art, Grey Room, and the Archives of American Art Journal.
Introduction: Imaginary Lives
1. On Pseudoautonymy: Maurice Syndell
2. On Obfuscation: Wally Hedrick
3. On Fictional Creativity: George Herms and Wallace Berman
4. On Role-Playing: Billy Al Bengston, Edward Ruscha, Joe Goode, and Lynda Benglis
5. On Doubling: Larry Bell and Judy Chicago
6. On Historical Fictions: Eleanor Antin
Conclusion: Imaginary Afterlives
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 31.12.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 111 color plates, 34 halftones |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 191 x 254 mm |
| Gewicht | 1674 g |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile |
| ISBN-10 | 0-226-83963-X / 022683963X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-226-83963-9 / 9780226839639 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
aus dem Bereich
