Visual Shock
  • Published: 15 February 2008
  • ISBN: 9781400034642
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $40.00

Visual Shock

A History of Art Controversies in American Culture

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In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents a fascinating analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their unique ability to both delight and provoke us. He illuminates America’s obsession with public memorials and the changing role of art and museums in our society. From Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, (considered “too big, bold, and gory” when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial, this is an eye-opening account of American art and the battles and controversies that it has ignited.
  • Published: 15 February 2008
  • ISBN: 9781400034642
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $40.00
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Praise for Visual Shock

"The value of VISUAL SHOCK lies in its historical survey of the role of provocation in art. . . . The book provides a useful overview of artistic controversies in America."--Baltimore Sun

"Kammen . . . is less interested in the merits of particular works of art than he is the complexities of the controversies they ignite. . . . [And] he handles these variegated brouhahas with welcome deftness; he squeezes in all the facts while maintaining a nice narrative flow."--The Nation