1970s
A01=Elizabeth E. Guffey
A01=Elizabeth Guffey
advertising
afros
art deco
Author_Elizabeth E. Guffey
Author_Elizabeth Guffey
campy
capitalism
Category=JBCC1
comeback
commercialism
culture
design
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fashion
history
identity
kitschy
marketing
media
memory
moderne
music
nonfiction
nostalgia
nouveau
past
political expression
pop
popularity
psychedelic
revival
slogans
style
surrealism
television jingles
touchstones
trends
vogue
Product details
- ISBN 9781861892904
- Dimensions: 210 x 148mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2006
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Flares are in. Flares are out. Flares are back again. Fads constantly cycle and recycle through popular culture, each time in a slightly new incarnation. The term ‘retro’ has become the buzz word for describing such trends, but what does it mean? Elizabeth Guffey explores here the ambiguous cultural meanings of the term and reveals why some trends just never seem to stay dead.
Drawing upon a wealth of original research and entertaining anecdotal material, Guffey unearths the roots of the term retro and chronicles its evolving manifestations in culture and art throughout the last century. Whether in art, design, fashion or music, the idea of retro has often meant a re-emergence of styles and sensibilities that evoke familiar touchstones of memory from the not-so-distant past. Guffey explores how and why the past keeps coming back to haunt us in a variety of forms, from the comeback of Art Nouveau nearly fifty years after its original decline, to the infusion of Art Deco into the kitsch glamour of Pop art, to the recent popularity over 1980s vogue. She also considers how advertisers and media have employed the power of such cultural nostalgia, using recycled television jingles, familiar old slogans and famous art to sell a surprising range of products.
An engrossing and wholly unprecedented study, Retro reveals how the past is embedded in the future of contemporary art and culture.
Elizabeth E. Guffey is Professor of Art and Design History at the State University of New York, Purchase, and founding editor of academic journal Design and Culture. She is the author of Drawing an Elusive Line: The Art and Career of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (2001) and Retro: The Culture of Revival (Reaktion, 2006). She is also vice-president of the Design Studies Forum.
