"The second half of the twentieth century has been a time of rapid change and accelerated cycles of creativity. In this volume, Lisa Phillips keeps pace with the dizzying energy of these decades by focusing on the avant-garde - the artists who propelled American art after World War II and who continually challenge our basic assumptions about what art is and what the role of the artist should be within the turbulent social atmosphere of twentieth-century America. Sidebar essays by a variety of experts in related fields highlight the broad cultural context - from rock 'n' roll to underground film to postmodern dance - in which vanguard American art flourished."--BOOK JACKET.