"Vision explores the many factors that have contributed to the special character of British art and design over five decades: the creative ferment of the art schools, where students are tutored by practising artists rather than academic art teachers; the inspiration of music, fashion and the ever-shifting profile of the international art world. It reveals the impact of political and social developments on the arts throughout the period, from the blend of optimism and anxiety of postwar Britain to the radicalism of the late 1960s, feminism, and the triumph of consumerism in the Thatcher years; from the social engineering of public architecture and state support for the arts to the populism of postmodernism."--Jacket.