POST 8: 1960s Op, Pop, Psychedelia, Punk and the voice of Street art and Graffiti

The 1960’s saw a revolution in culture and in lifestyles, graphics and art. It was a tumultuous decade marked by civil rights movement, the Vietnam war and protests and a generation gap between new and old ideas and way of thinking.

Subcultures emerged and an explosion of colour, experimentation and energy emerged after the austere Post War era. One school of design merged with art.

Op Art used geometric shapes in sometimes wild forms, and there was a connection between Op and Kinetic Art. Key figures in this movement were Bridget Riley, Jesus Rafael Soto, and Victor Vasarely. Pop Art, one of the most recognisable movements of the twentieth century, used imagery from popular culture, it’s most recognisable figures were Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton and James Rosenquist.

Beardsley, John Tenniel (illustrator of Alice in Wonderland) and William Blake influenced the Psychedelia movement, that was an underground movement based on a generation looking for a new direction. Major players were Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso. The movement is defined by brightly coloured highly illustrative design and hand drawn typography.

The origins in street art and graffiti lay in folk art, handmade street signs and communication between those on the streets of LA of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

They were not political and were originally an outlet of people in subcultures that may not have had a voice. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Banksy are all household names who started off making their voices heard through street art.

These handmade, rough graphics in turn influenced the iconic DIY graphics Punk culture of the 1970’s with designers such Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville, Barney Bubbles, Russell Mills and Jamie Reid exploiting the new technologies of reproductive printing and collage techniques.

Choose one movement and/or summarise the 1960’s in 300 words min, 5 images and 5 hyperlinks of where you sourced the information and images.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/10-decades-of-design–cms-29370

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-iconic-artists-and-movements-of-the-1960s

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-op-artists-1960s-created-hallucinatory-effects

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s

https://www.iconeye.com/design/features/item/12567-ink-and-acid-the-psychedelic-design-revolution

https://prospect.org/culture/unstoppable-ascendency-street-art/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/04/revolutionary-artists-60s-counterculture-v-and-a-you-say-you-want-a-revolution

http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2011/05/chapter-35-grafitti-and-street-art.html

https://www.connox.com/design-knowledge/60s-design.html

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/punk-uncovered