Cool Cars, High Art

Cool Cars, High Art PDF Author: John DeWitt
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781578064038
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book Here

Book Description
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

Cool Cars, High Art PDF Author: John DeWitt
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781578064038
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book Here

Book Description
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: The Rise of Kustum Kulture

Cool Cars, High Art: The Rise of Kustum Kulture PDF Author:
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781604737752
Category : Art, American
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description


High Riders, Saints and Death Cars

High Riders, Saints and Death Cars PDF Author: Nicholas Herrera
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780888998545
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The folk artist describes his life and how he left his wild life behind after surviving a near-fatal car accident to follow in his family's footsteps to create paintings and sculptures of saints and scenes from the Bible with a modern-day interpretation.

Rat Fink

Rat Fink PDF Author: Ed Roth
Publisher: Last Gasp
ISBN: 0867195452
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 transformed car design, reinvented American hot rod culture and put Detroit on notice. Each of his creations transcended function and form to turn the American automobile into rolling sculpture.

Assembling Art

Assembling Art PDF Author:
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781617033513
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description


From Betamax to Blockbuster

From Betamax to Blockbuster PDF Author: Joshua M. Greenberg
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262514990
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
How the VCR was transformed from a machine that records television into a medium for movies. The first video cassette recorders were promoted in the 1970s as an extension of broadcast television technology—a time-shifting device, a way to tape TV shows. Early advertising for Sony's Betamax told potential purchasers “You don't have to miss Kojak because you're watching Columbo.” But within a few years, the VCR had been transformed from a machine that recorded television into an extension of the movie theater into the home. This was less a physical transformation than a change in perception, but one that relied on the very tangible construction of a network of social institutions to support this new marketplace for movies. In From Betamax to Blockbuster, Joshua Greenberg explains how the combination of neighborhood video stores and the VCR created a world in which movies became tangible consumer goods. Greenberg charts a trajectory from early “videophile” communities to the rise of the video store—complete with theater marquee lights, movie posters, popcorn, and clerks who offered expert advice on which movies to rent. The result was more than a new industry; by placing movies on cassette in the hands (and control) of consumers, video rental and sale led to a renegotiation of the boundary between medium and message, and ultimately a new relationship between audiences and movies. Eventually, Blockbuster's top-down franchise store model crowded local video stores out of the market, but the recent rise of Netflix, iTunes, and other technologies have reopened old questions about what a movie is and how (and where) it ought to be watched. By focusing on the “spaces in between” manufacturers and consumers, Greenberg's account offers a fresh perspective on consumer technology, illustrating how the initial transformation of movies from experience into commodity began not from the top down or the bottom up, but from the middle of the burgeoning industry out.

Mastering the Art of Selling Cars Online

Mastering the Art of Selling Cars Online PDF Author: Edward Coleman
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 9781412004305
Category : Electronic commerce
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Industry expert Eddie Coleman reveals the secrets of selling cars online and making millions doing it. Learn sales, marketing and website strategies as developed by the nation's leading e-dealer visionary.

The Hot Rod Reader

The Hot Rod Reader PDF Author: Peter Schletty
Publisher: Motorbooks International
ISBN: 0760339686
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
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, cars, and builders who brought hot rods to the national stage. From popular writers of the era to those covering today’s cutting edge innovators, this collection explores various themes within hot rodding through news articles, essays, fiction, interviews, and more, with more than 60 color and black-and-white illustrations and photographs to illuminate each excerpt and story. Writers include Gray Baskerville, Ed Roth, Wally Parks, Dean Batchelor, Robert E. Petersen, Tom Wolfe, LeRoi "Tex" Smith, and many more.

The American Midwest

The American Midwest PDF Author: Andrew R. L. Cayton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253003490
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1918

Get Book Here

Book Description
This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.

The Business of Speed

The Business of Speed PDF Author: David N. Lucsko
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421402742
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
2009 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Since the mass production of Henry Ford’s Model T, car enthusiasts have been redesigning, rebuilding, and reengineering their vehicles for increased speed and technical efficiency. They purchase aftermarket parts, reconstruct engines, and enhance body designs, all in an effort to personalize and improve their vehicles. Why do these car enthusiasts modify their cars and where do they get their aftermarket parts? Here, David N. Lucsko provides the first scholarly history of America’s hot rod business. Lucsko examines the evolution of performance tuning through the lens of the $34-billion speed equipment industry that supports it. As early as 1910, dozens of small shops across the United States designed, manufactured, and sold add-on parts to consumers eager to employ new technologies as they tinkered with their cars. Operating for much of the twentieth century in the shadow of the Big Three automobile manufacturers—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—these businesses grew at an impressive rate, supplying young and old hot rodders with thousands of performance-boosting gadgets. Lucsko offers a rich and heretofore untold account of the culture and technology of the high-performance automotive aftermarket in the United States, offering a fresh perspective on the history of the automobile in America.