How photography came to thrive in the postwar era, from pop to conceptualism
This volume explores how and why the second half of the 20th century proved such a fruitful moment for the ascendance of photography. It investigates pop art, conceptual art and emerging photo-based art forms such as film and television through the lens of fine-art photography and vernacular photography.
In addition to an essay on the ill-fitting place of photography in art historical surveys of the 1960s and '70s, the book also includes essays by scholars and collectors reexamining more specialized outlets for photography. These include explorations of the use of collage, the brief fashion craze of paper dresses and the significance of television programing and news photography as source material for art production.
Artists include: John Baldessari, Nan Goldin, Robert Heinecken, Andrzej Paruzel, Hiromi Tsuchida, Nam June Paik and Martha Rosler.
"Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman will investigate how and why the 1960s and '70s became a vital era for the ascension of photography to the status of fine art, arguing that critical to the acceptance of both Pop Art and fine photography was a newfound acceptance of multiples. Prior to Pop Art, art media that produced "copies," like in prints and photographs, were perpetually undervalued compared to "original" objects like paintings. However, with the appropriation of photo-based imagery by artists like Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann, Pop Art and photography developed a symbiotic relationship as Pop Art certified the aesthetic importance of photography through its appropriation. Using a variety of media derived mostly from the Worcester Art Museum's permanent collection, Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman investigates Pop Art, Conceptual Art, and emerging photo-based art forms, primarily through the lens of photography. It seeks to illustrate how photographs leap from second-tier status to the driving force behind contemporary art production with the emergence of artists like Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, and Martha Rosler. The book will also illustrate how photography became entrenched in art production globally, as seen in the photomontages of British conceptual artist John Stezaker, conceptual work by Polish video artist and photographer Andrej Paruzel, and in the work of Japanese documentary photographer Hiromi Tuschida"--
