Negotiating the "Resemblances of Surfaces": Painterly Abstract Painting and Consumer Culture, circa 1945-1965.

During the middle of the twentieth century, members of the American art world, academics from the arts and sciences, and cultural commentators all used concepts from the economy and consumer culture to describe and evaluate the meaning and significance of vanguard painterly abstract painting. Restaging their discourse reveals they perceived that consumer culture was determining the forms, uses, and values of art. However, there were alternatives, as evidenced by the early sculpture of Claes Oldenburg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]