Publisher's Synopsis
This volume has been inspired by Alex Seago's desire to understand and discover the origins of postmodern culture in Britain. Arguing that postwar art schools provided a vital crucible for the development of a particularly English cultural sensibility, he focuses on cultural change at the Royal College of Art, London, during the 1950s and 1960s.;The students' attack on the English "box of beautiful things" (a term used by a former student to describe the neo-Romantic, neo-Victorian, highly decorative tastes of some RCA tutors) took several forms which eventually resulted in the Pop Art produced by the 1959-62 generation (Boshier, Phillips, Jones, Hockney et al).;Alex Seago's study of the emergence of English postmodernism is based on content analysis of a central archive, "ARK: The Journal of the Royal College of Art", and interviews with "ARK"'s former editors, art editors and contributors, including Len Deighton, novelist and art editor of "ARK 10"; Clifford Hatts, student at the RCA 1946-48 and later Head of the Design Group, BBC; Peter Blake (RCA Painting School, 1953-56); Robyn Denny (RCA Painting School, 1954-57).
