Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982

Cornell, Daniell (Edited by)

ISBN 10: 3791351761 / ISBN 13: 9783791351766

Published by Palm Springs Art Museum; DelMonico Books, Palm Springs, CA and New York, 2012

Cloth, 256 pages, illustrations (some colour); 29 cm. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, January 21 to May 27, 2012. Near fine. Gently browsed, clean inside copy. Faint droplet stain/top edge. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! Additional shipping charges may be requested for international & priority orders. Profusely illustrated. *** "Southern California's pool culture is the subject of this unique and luscious collection of photographs that explore the parallel evolution of an iconic symbol and an artistic genre. Since the end of World War II, Southern California's backyard pools--those blue-green oases in an otherwise often arid landscape--have symbolized any number of American ideals: optimism, wealth, consumerism, escape, physical beauty, and the triumph of man over nature. Simultaneously, the field of photography developed as a transformative method for recording the human condition. This exhibition catalogue celebrates the nexus of these two phenomena in a one-of-a-kind collection that features more than two hundred works by more than forty postwar artists and photographers. It presents works by photographers and artists including Bill Anderson, John Baldessari, Ruth Bernhard, David Hockney, Herb Ritts, Ed Ruscha, Julius Shulman, and Larry Sultan. Thematically grouped into topics ranging from the rise of celebrity culture, suburbia and dystopia, avant-garde architectural landscape design, and the cult of the body, these images offer a rich study of the cultural connotations of the swimming pool. Six insightful essays provide a comprehensive overview of the development of the swimming pool and its attendant aesthetic and social culture. / Daniell Cornell is Senior Curator and Deputy Director of Art at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California. I256 pages with 256 illustrations, 93 in colour." - Publisher. *** CONTENTS: Introduction: Swimming in the American dream, by Daniell Cornell; Exposed desires: poolside reflections on celebrity, by Daniell Cornell; Swimming alone: the backyard pool in Cold War California, by Jennifer A. Watts; Designing nature: the pool in the garden, by Robert Stearns; From beefcake to skatecake: shifting depictions of masculinity and the backyard swimming pool in southern California, by Tyler Stallings; My beach boyhood: a personal history of southern California in the 1960s, by Robert Atkins; Hole: swimming . . . floating . . . sinking . . . drowning, by Dick Hebdige. Size: 4to. Seller Inventory # 100575

Synopsis:

Since the end of World War II, southern California's backyard pools - those blue-green oases in an otherwise often arid landscape - have symbolized any number of American ideals: optimism, wealth, consumerism, escape, physical beauty, and the triumph of man over nature. Simultaneously, the field of photography developed as a transformative method for recording the human condition. This exhibition catalogue celebrates the nexus of these two phenomena in a one-of-a-kind collection that features more than two hundred works by more than forty post-war artists and photographers. It presents works by photographers and artists including Bill Anderson, John Baldessari, Ruth Bernhard, David Hockney, Herb Ritts, Ed Ruscha, Julius Shulman, and Larry Sultan. Thematically grouped into topics ranging from the rise of celebrity culture, suburbia and dystopia, avant-garde architectural landscape design and the cult of the body, these images offer a rich study of the cultural connotations of the swimming pool. Six insightful essays provide a comprehensive overview of the development of the swimming pool and its attendant aesthetic and social culture.

About the Author: Daniell Cornell is senior curator and deputy director of art at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in ...
Publisher: Palm Springs Art Museum; DelMonico Books, Palm Springs, CA and New York
Publication Date: 2012
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
Edition: 1st.
Book Type: Collectible