ARTS IN AMERICA: 'Avant-Garde' Artists Come in From the Cold (War)
By STEPHEN KINZER
WELLESLEY, Mass. ― Although the 1950's are often described as somnolent years in the United States, they were also a time of artistic ferment, when dissonant music and abstract painting burst into the public consciousness.
But in recent years some scholars and curators have come to believe that this ferment was not really so radical, and that although these artists considered themselves consummate outsiders, their work often served to promote rather than subvert mainstream values.
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