Painted World

"Radical Chic" is Tom Wolfe's hilarious dissection of the need among wealthy liberals in late '60s America to be seen to support the correct political causes - even if that meant giving champagne receptions for the feared Black Panther Party. "Mau-Mauing The Flak Catchers" takes a satirical look at how, during that period of cultural upheaval, minority groups from the ghettoes refined the art of intimidating the white bureaucracy. In these essays, Wolfe's supercharged yet consummately controlled prose transports the reader back to the heady days of hippie revolution and Black Power. "The Painted Word" is Wolfe's insightful, flamboyant and supremely readable survey of Modern Art. Taking in Picasso, Pollock and Warhol, he describes the tense relationship between bohemian artists and their wealthy patrons, and concludes that modern art is Theory - the paintings and sculptures themselves are mere illustrations of the text. 'Tome Wolfe is a journalist who always manages to combine an encylopedic store of inside knowledge with the obstinate detachment of a visitor from Mars, not to mention a brilliant style and incisive wit' - "San Francisco Chronicle".