{"product_id":"lives-of-the-imaginary-artists-in-cold-war-california-9780226839639","title":"Lives of the Imaginary Artists in Cold War California","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow artists created fictionalized identities to realize works that resisted political overreach and art historical conventions.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This book explores how a group of real California artists created imaginary artists, engaging with the political climate of the Cold War era and frustrating the discipline of art history. They employed pseudonymity, obfuscation, anonymity, (auto)biografiction, imaginary portraiture, heteronymity, role-playing, doubling, and alter ego. Often laced with humor, these exploits facilitated stylistic experimentation, provoking reactions from art viewers and governing authorities alike, and disrupting reliance on documentation and attribution within art history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the 1950s and early 1960s, Ed Kienholz, Walter Hopps, Robert Alexander, Wally Hedrick, George Herms, and Wallace Berman activated imagined and secret identities, provoking reactions within a conservative environment gripped by communist paranoia. As political concerns shifted in the 1960s and 1970s to movements for peace and equality, artists including Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, Lynda Benglis, Larry Bell, Judy Chicago, \u003cbr\u003e Considering a compelling range of visual material, including paintings, sculptures, and performed intrusions as well as publications, postcards, and advertisements, Monica Steinberg examines why these imaginary artists appeared when and where they did--and to what ends. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Monica Steinberg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/29\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 460\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 3.79lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.18h x 7.80w x 1.42d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226839639","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45198962000009,"sku":"9780226839639","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_171f13bc-051e-4186-9999-4ff2690419a9.jpg?v=1769492227","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/lives-of-the-imaginary-artists-in-cold-war-california-9780226839639","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}