Pattern and Decoration: Ornament as Promise

On one hand, patchwork and decorative pattern, on the other, political and emancipatory claim aspirations: the Pattern and Decoration movement of the mid-’70s combined apparent contradictions in a reclamation of fantasy and color and a retort to the austerities of minimalism. Artists such as Polly Apfelbaum, Adriana Czernin, Brad Davis, Frank Faulkner, Tina Girouard, Dan Hays, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Kim MacConnel, Rashid Rana, Miriam Schapiro, Kendall Shaw, Christine Streuli, Ned Smyth, Lee Wagstaff, Heike Weber, Robert Zakanitch and Joe Zucker questioned traditional notions of art while also broaching such topics as the respective positions of women, Native Americans and ethnic minorities in the global art scene and in society. This important publication undertakes a comprehensive reappraisal of an overlooked American art movement, reprinting key relevant texts alongside reproductions of works.