Art and the city
Subtitle: civic imagination and cultural authority in Los Angeles
By: Sarah Schrank.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780812241174
Subjects: Public art -- Political aspects -- California -- Los Angeles; Art and society -- California -- Los Angeles; Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Cultural policy
Description: "Art and the City argues that debates over modernism among artists and civic leaders alike made art a charged political site as early as the 1910s. The legacy of those early battles reverberated throughout the century. Because of a rich tradition of arts education and the presence of Hollywood, Los Angeles historically hosted a talented population of contemporary artists. However, because of the snug relationship between urban aesthetics and capital investment that underscored the booster goals of the civic arts movement, modern artists were pushed out of public exhibition spaces until after World War II. Art and the City uncovers the historic struggles for cultural expression and creative space that are hidden behind the city's booster mythology."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Boosters, early moderns, and the artful civic imaginary; title: Modernism in public spaces; title: Painting the town red; title: Bohemia in vogue; title: Imagining the Watts Towers.