Cool Cars, High Art

Cool Cars, High Art
Author :
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages : 205
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1578064031
ISBN-13 : 9781578064038
Rating : 4/5 (31 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Cool Cars, High Art by : John DeWitt

Download or read book Cool Cars, High Art written by John DeWitt and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2002-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along with the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hot rods and custom cars are powerful symbols of resistance, rebellion, and the high-octane lifestyle. Since the 1950s, these flashy restyled automobiles have occupied a unique place in American popular mythology. Cool Cars, High Art: The Rise of Kustom Kulture checks out this particularly male subculture with an up-close look at customized car art and the artists who create it. Through amazing technical mastery, coupled with a uniquely American imagination, these motorheads transform mass-produced products of industry into unique hand-crafted pieces of art called "rods" and "customs." This first full-length study to focus on the practice of hot rodding and car customizing argues not only that this "kustom kulture" deserves consideration as a source of legitimate art forms but also that the rise of American car customizing reflects the attitudes and ideas of the teen culture that emerged in the 1950s. While tracing the evolution of styles, this book examines specific cars and the progression of car culture through the 1990s. Cool Cars, High Art: The Rise of Kustom Kulture argues moreover that in this car art the theories of modernism meld with popular culture. In their beauty, in the sophistication of their designs, and in their formal play, these transformed, re-imagined cars parallel the ideas, techniques, and achievement of high-art modernists. And as high art progresses into postmodernism, so too does customized car culture. Despite the longevity and the magnitude of Kustom Kulture, this far-reaching contribution to American art has largely been ignored by mainstream critics. While postulating the cause of this anomaly, this book questions what is meant by art and how preconceived notions of gender, race, and class often prevent the recognition of creativity in places where imagination is not anticipated. John F. DeWitt, an associate professor of English and the acting director of the liberal arts program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, is the author of several books of poetry. He has been published in The New American Review and New Geography of American Poets.


Cool Cars, High Art Related Books

Cool Cars, High Art: The Rise of Kustum Kulture
Language: en
Pages: 230
Authors:
Categories: Art, American
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002 - Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Cool Cars, High Art
Language: en
Pages: 205
Authors: John DeWitt
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002-01 - Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Along with the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hot rods and custom cars are powerful symbols of resistance, rebellion, and the high-octane lifestyle. Since the 1950
The Hot Rod Reader
Language: en
Pages: 292
Authors: Peter Schletty
Categories: Transportation
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-03-28 - Publisher: Motorbooks International

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This anthology of hot rod writings and excerpts chronicles the joys of hot rodding, the historical circumstances of its creation, and the major events, people,
Rat Fink
Language: en
Pages: 227
Authors: Ed Roth
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003 - Publisher: Last Gasp

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Born in Los Angeles and raised in the epicentre of the California hot rod explosion, Ed Roth created automotive forms purely from his own imagination. He transf
The Persistence of Technology
Language: en
Pages: 293
Authors: Stefan Krebs
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-09-30 - Publisher: transcript Verlag

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Repair, reuse and disposal are closely interlinked phenomena related to the service lives and persistence of technologies. When technical artefacts become old a