God's Own Junkyard
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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God's Own Junkyard: The Planned Deterioration of America's Landscape (1964) is a book by German-American architect Peter Blake.
Blurb:
- "Contains many black and white photos of the desecration of the U.S. landscape in the late 50's/early 60's."
Excerpts
"It is a deliberate attack upon all those who have already befouled a large portion of this country for private gain and are engaged in befouling the rest."
"At present, these should-be leaders are, instead, performing for Mr. Ripley's "Believe It or Not" circus: architects, painters, and sculptors are outdoing one another in acrobatics, in hot pursuit of novelty; taste makers are busy watching the box office and the circulation figures, instead of making taste; and the public (which includes the public uglifiers) simply follows the lead of our supposed "intellectual elite."
"For the truth is that the mess that is man-made America is merely a caricature of the mess that is art in America — and a very mild caricature at that. The inscription on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral contains the famous words:"If thou seek his monument, look about thee." God forbid that this should ever become our epitaph."
See also