George
Matthew Boreham – Context of Practice
How
art in the 60s/early 70’s reacted to social and cultural forces in that period
There is
near unanimous consensus among historians that the 1960’s represented the most
significant social movement of the 20th century. Perhaps Jann Wenner, world
famous journalist and Founder of Rolling Stone Magazine recently put it best...
“The culture wars that
began in the sixties, about drugs, about military incursions into foreign
countries, about sex and human rights, the environment and on and on, are still
being fought. All the issues are correct, and they are rooted in the activism
of the sixties. The values have not only survived – in many ways they are the
mainstream values of our times.”
(Visualartsdepartment.
n/a. Psychedelic 60’s. n/a. Graphic
Design History. [Online]. [Accessed 1 May 2014])
People
remember the 60’s as a flamboyant and free spirited decade, with drug use
common and peace protesters filling the streets. Psychedelic culture is one of
the first things that come to mind when you think about the 60’s, along with
flower power and the hippie movement. The ‘baby boom’ which took place after
World War II brought a generation of youths into the 60’s who were tired of war
and fighting, living in countries only just recovering from the devastation
that the world wars brought. The height of the cold war was also just around
the corner, with Sputnik’s successful launch in ’57 igniting the space race
tensions in many countries were extremely high. The Vietnam War was also
continuing, with huge amounts of casualties on both sides. I am going to be
looking into how these cultural and societal changes affected art and design
through this period, and also how society responded to that reaction. The 60’s
were a turbulent time; a transitional period between the chaos and violence of
two world wars, and the glamorized peaceful future which was being led by the
anti-war hippies and the children of the baby boom who yearned for a life of
higher quality than their parents.
Different
cultures and countercultures were being born left right and centre, spawning an
array of new cliques to identify as, some of which had powerful rivalries such
as the mods and the rockers.
Technology
and lifestyles evolved and changed thus did the attitudes of the people. One of
the big reasons for the flower power and peace movements was the fact that many
people had started to not trust their governments and question their workings. Protests
were held around the globe but especially in Australia and the United States of
America, with the majority of these people being children of the baby boom,
wanting their voices heard in the newfound freedom of speech.
Consumerism
was an ideology which was both hugely celebrated and denounced in the art and
design of this period. Pop Art was a movement which especially celebrated
consumerism, and was particularly exploitive of the advertising and media
explosion. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein became synonymous
with Pop Art, creating works which celebrated the often mundane, for example
Warhol’s Cambells soup prints, and also using bright colours and halftones in a
comic book style.
Many
Pop Artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used appropriation (taking
an existing design and recreating it). This caused some controversy as it made
people question who the artist is, the original designer or the appropriator.
Lichtenstein
is known for his comic book style works, often using parody. His most famous
works include an appropriated panel from a DC comic, ‘Drowning Girl’. The use
of dots, block colour and bold black lines has become a trademark of
Lichtenstein’s work, and similar pieces are often compared to his. Warhol
himself used to use this style, but stopped when he felt that he would too be
compared to Lichtenstein.
The
media and TV revolution throughout this period sparked an advertising boom. The
60’s is known as the golden age of advertising and for good reason. Ads during
this time contained everything, from sexual references, to advertisements for
cigarettes which claimed you would be more attractive to women. Thanks to
people having more money after the wars, consumerism and materialism took over,
spawning the mod subculture. Terry Rawlings argues that the mod scene developed
when British teenagers began to reject the "dull, timid, old-fashioned,
and uninspired" British culture around them, with its repressed and
class-obsessed mentality and its "naffness". Mods rejected the
"faulty pap" of 1950s pop music and sappy love songs. They aimed at
being "cool, neat, sharp, hip, and smart" by embracing "all
things sexy and streamlined", especially when they were new, exciting,
controversial or modern. [Rawlings, Terry, Mod:
Clean Living Under Very Difficult Circumstances: a Very British Phenomenon
(Omnibus Press, 2000)]
Youthfulness
was a new growing craze too which would never fade out. As the youth revolution
took place it had an affect on all ages, with people wanting to be more and
more youthful, ‘cool’ and fashionable. One of the emerging trends especially in
youth culture was that of ‘Flower Power and psychedelic art. With self
expression and freedom becoming more powerful, drug use and sex were seen more
and more. This psychedelic art grew huge, being used in posters, advertisements
and music covers. The most famous festival of all time, Woodstock, was
plastered with psychedelic posters and art, with the music of acts like Jimi
Hendrix to blend with. Vibrant colours with warped shapes gave a trippy
aesthetic which would be associated with being on drugs were massively popular
thanks to the explosion in the usage of drugs such as LSD and MDMA. The designs
were often kaleidoscopic and distorted. Rainbow effects and gradients were also
heavily used, often with flowing liquid-like shapes that to me were almost
painful to look at, certainly disorientating, which seemed to be part of the
experience having artwork which literally changed the mindset you were in when
viewing it. Vivid colours, patterns and crazy vibrant fashion styles emerged and
these styles were called ‘psychedelic’ also due to the links between the
clothes and the people wearing them. The
tagline for the festival was ‘3 days of peace and music’ a philosophy that the
hippies of the flower power movement related to. In an interview with Ken
Johnson by CNN, Ken says that the main idea behind the ‘psychedelic experience’
is that it makes people start to think about and challenge their own
perceptions and this caused the direction of art to change. Designers such as
Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoco were highly influential to this psychedelic
movement. It’s thought that the high contrasting and vibrating colour clashes
were inspired by the Pop Art movement which was growing also. These vibrating
colours and strange shapes were also found in Op Art (short for optical art)
which was an abstract art style which used optical illusions created by
geometric shapes and colour clashes.
Even
with all of this going on however, graphic design and some areas of art (such
as minimalism) took an almost opposite approach, more increasingly throughout
the decade. Simplicity and refined design was being produced, and was much
different than the psychedelic art that was also being produced at the time,
and reached a different audience. Earthy rich tones such as dark browns, reds,
oranges and greens were used often as they were in the 50s. Designers such as
Paul Rand and Elaine Lustig paved the path for graphic design producing
timeless work thanks to the minimalism of it. The problem with the psychedelic
era was that it dated extremely quickly, something that Pop Art luckily didn’t
due to the growing industrial and advertising markets. Saul Bass was also
dominating the movie poster realm with beautiful and again timeless design, as
the concepts behind the ideas were far stronger than the concepts found in the
art world at the time.
Oz
magazine was an underground satirical publication birthed in Australia 1963,
which ran until 1969. It was massively popular; people seemed to flock to this
new outlet which targeted elephant in the room topics of the time such as
homosexuality, police brutality and censorship. By lunchtime of publication day
(April Fool’s Day 1963), the 16 page first issue had sold 6000 copies. [Richard Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake (William
Heinemann Australia, 1995].
The
editors also started London Oz in 1967, which was still very edgy and
controversial, but revolved around psychedelic art. This issue in particular
sparked a huge amount of controversy. After being criticized for losing touch
with the youth audience, they allowed school kids to edit an issue of the
magazine, named the School Kids Issue. This alone caused uproar as it suggested
that the issue was targeting a child audience as opposed to an issue created by
them. One article in the magazine was a much sexualized parody of Rupert the
Bear, created by a 15year old boy by replacing the head of a character from one
of Robert Crumb’s X-rated cartoon with Rupert the bear’s.
This
cover which is obviously sexual and could be found offensive by many is also
found to be expressive and a revolutionary move on breaking censorship and
dated stigmas around nudity.
The
type used is Helvetica, a typeface created by Max Miedinger in 1957. It was
designed to be without connotation and meaning, and back before its overuse
that’s recognised today, it was. This meant that the focus was on the subject
rather than the type itself, and allowed for the subject of sexuality and
self-expression to run free.
Oz
also used a very small amount of colour, and cheap printing methods whilst
being printed in Australia which is clear in this cover using halftones and
very few colours.
This
being said, the colours chosen are bright and contrasting, something that in
the 60’s was common place until designers later would go against the grain and
begin using more earthy and relaxed colours.
The
main reason why this magazine attracted so much criticism and caused so much
uproar however is obviously for the ‘obscene’ imagery. Nudity was used extensively
and even though the sexual revolution was in motion it was still very much
opposed when it came to certain types of media such as magazines like this,
which featured other ‘obscenities’ inside and could be purchased relatively
easily.
Like
many other underground publications, Oz was designed to not conform to
professional standards of print. The format of the publication changed often,
sometimes appearing as a book/magazine, while sometimes it was created as a
fold out poster. Oz was extremely experimental with its design. Throughout it’s
history it featured comics, colour and black and white publications, different
formats, grids systems etc. This was also true for other underground magazines
such as Zap Comix.
Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) by Andy Warhol is definitely one
of the most famous and renowned pieces of artwork that came from the 60s. It is
composed of 32 paintings on canvas; one for each flavour at the time. Warhol’s
work often celebrated the mundane and things that were ignored due to being so
ubiquitous. This work gave Warhol the chance to express his feelings on modern
culture which were clearly positive. It also shook up the art world a great
deal, as previously art has been seen as beautiful and well crafted, where as
with Warhol’s work it’s much more about a message and attempting to change an
audiences perspective on what art could be. In Europe however the reception was
much different. People thought that the artwork was a ‘marxist satire’ that was
critical of the american capitalism and the consumerist culture that was
emerging. Given Warhol’s lifestyle, other works and lack of care for politics
this is unlikely. When asked about the things the paints he said "I just paint
things I always thought were beautiful, things you use every day and never
think about." This mantra was followed throughout a lot of pop art. His other silkscreens which achieved huge popularity
are of famous celebrities. This suggested that the motivation for his
Campbell’s Soup Cans work was simply that he liked the soup. ‘Several
stories mention that Warhol's choice of soup cans reflected his own avid
devotion to Campbell's soup as a consumer. Robert Indiana once said: "I
knew Andy very well. The reason he painted soup cans is that he liked soup.’’ [Comenas, Gary (December 1, 2002). "Warholstars".
New York Times. Retrieved December 17,
2006].
Andy
Warhol’s opinions on art are recorded in the Time magazine description of the
'Slice of Cake School’. "a group of painters have come to the common
conclusion that the most banal and even vulgar trappings of modern civilization
can, when transposed to canvas, become Art." ["The
Slice-of-Cake School". Time, 79 (19): 52. May 11, 1962. Retrieved 25 December 2013.]
The context of this work was
critical. If you imagine this in a store it’s just an advertisement, but it’s
placement in a museum forces the audience to look at it in a different light.
Also, the juxtaposition between people’s opinion of art at the time, which was
much more to do with skill and beauty, was turned on it’s head by Warhol when
this work posed the question of ‘can this be art’? in the right context. The
fact that this work is a series of 32 also suggests it may be a comment on the
mass production becoming more important in the world, with less hand crafted
products being made. This is further suggested as the fleur-de-lis located at
the base of the can isn’t painted but printed. Today thanks to the visual world
we live in swamped in advertisements, it’s easy to accept this work as art,
however when it was produced it was very poorly received and almost offensive
to the art world. [2012. Andy
Warhol, Campbell Soup Cans: Why is this Art?. [Online]. [Accessed
2014-05-05]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdbOrNLcC0I#t=381]
So
to conclude…the 60’s were turbulent, boundary pushing and
ultimately extremely revolutionary. The world seemed driven by the growing
economy, ‘youth’ culture and the drive to do things differently than before, as
the past few decades had been awful due to the world wars. There was also the
threat of new war, in Vietnam and the cold war, which sparked the hippie and
flower power revolutions, and the feeling that the people of the world had had
enough of violence and wanted a new era of peace and self-expression. It’s
widely thought that the 60’s was the most influential and important decade for
art, design and culture overall for a century. Not only was art and design
changing, but so was the perspective and opinions of art thanks to styles suck
as pop art and psychedelic art. The attitude that people would do what they
want regardless of other peoples opinion, and negative stigmas especially when
it came to sexuality, drugs and lifestyle choices was hugely influential even
if it was very controversial at the time. It seems that then controversy and
pushing boundaries with new ideas and dangerous material births new
perspectives and views. Without the 60’s I believe that the world would be a
much more bland and totalitarian place, with people not being able to be who
they truly were and self-expression being censored and restrained. Art and
design managed to progress more in this decade more than they had arguably over
the past century, as art stopped being this extremely precise and delicate type
of media, and became almost anything as proven by Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup
Cans. An idea itself can become art given the right context.
The
world was changing, and at a very fast pace; the art and design world kept up,
some might say that it was speeding the change up. Sex and drugs had not only
stopped being so hidden away and censored that it was being celebrated in every
medium; art, design, music and television. Art and design are things that are
skills, yet the passion comes from the soul, and when it’s something as
instinctual as your passions are restricted you aren’t in a free world, which
the 60’s thankfully created.
