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

Daniell Cornell (Michael Childers)

ISBN 10: 3791351761 / ISBN 13: 9783791351766

Published by Prestel USA, 2012

About this Item

Signed for the previous owner on the half title page by Michael Childers, who took the cover photo (The Hockney Swimmer). Fine first edition book in a fine jacket.

Seller Inventory # 181-MC

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982
• Publisher: Prestel USA
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3791351761
• ISBN 13: 9783791351766
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

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.