Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Provides a kaleidoscopic review of the avant-garde and radical subcultures of the twentieth century, and explains how artistic statements of the era redrew the line between high and low art.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Laconic reflections on 20th-century art and culture by a knowledgeable commentator with no conspicuous axe to grind or novel theory to purvey. The anthology's title, borrowed from an exhibition of Andy Warhol's selections from the storage rooms of a small museum, reflects Wollen's similar disregard of traditional values and orthodox hierarchies. Wollen finds the prevailing discourse on modernism and postmodernism to be "stiflingly Eurocentric," and he takes off in other directions. His cool revisionary perspective builds upon the writings of other revisionists but he proceeds more as an intellectual historian than a deconstructor in rejecting formalist readings and supporting the view that the "high art" of Western modernism was continuously challenged and vitiated by its myriad connections with popular culture, politics, and other traditions. Wollen's dry uninflected prose gives a uniform texture to the seven essays, in which argument is sometimes overwhelmed by informative detail. Kitsch, Fordism, the New Deal, Western Marxism, Freudian psychology, the Mexican renaissance, Stalinism, and Orientalism are some of the sociopolitical phenomena reconsidered. Breton, Pollock, and Warhol are among the prominent 20th-century figures reassessed, and many interesting lesser-known artists and thinkers are drawn to center stage. Notes; no general bibliography. Recommended. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty; general. W. B. Holmes University of Rhode Island

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Peter Wollen was Chair of the Department of Film, Television and New Media at the University of California, Los Angeles. His other books include Paris/Hollywood: Writings on Film and Paris/Manhattan: Writings on Art .