1960s

Black America

Notes of a native son: The world according to James Baldwin - Christina Greer
Benny Andrews, Flag Day
Jack Whitten, Black Monolith 1, A Tribute to James Baldwin, 1988, acrylic on canvas

Vietnamese American War

Vietnamese Villagers Moments Before Murdered, My Lai, Vietnam, March 16, 1968 Photo: Robert Haeberle
"War in Vietnam", 1967, British Pathe

Second Generation New York: Happenings, Performance, Experimental Media

Art Terms
Happening
Underground Art

Allan Kaprowb. New Jersey 1927d. California 2006
Kaprow, The Yard, 1961

"Mothlight abolishes photography altogether, and yet—more than any movie ever made—it is profoundly indexical. At the same time, the artist was practicing a particular sort of magic." J. Hoberman on Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight, Close-Up: Direct Cinema, ArtForum, September, 2012

Stan Brakhageb. Missouri 1933d. British Columbia 2003
Brakhage, Mothlight, 1963
J. Hoberman on Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight, Close-Up: Direct Cinema, ArtForum, September, 2012
Max Nelson, Brakhage: When Light Meets Life, 2017

more on Stan Brakhage

Carolee Schneemannb. Pennsylvania 1939d. New York 2019
Carolee Schneemann, Eye Body, 1963
Carolee Schneemann, Eye Body, 1963
Carolee Schneemann, Up to and Including Her Limits, 1973

more on Carolee Schneemann

Carolee Schneemann, Meat Joy, 1963
Carolee Schneemann, Up to and Including Her Limits, 1973
Abbi Jacobson, A Piece of Work: If It's Got Naked People, RuPaul Is In, 2017

Artist and activist Nancy Spero produced a radical body of work that confronted oppression and inequality while challenging the aesthetic orthodoxies of contemporary art. Spero drew on archetypal representations of women across various cultures and times in an attempt to reframe history itself from a perspective that she termed “woman as protagonist.” MoMA

Nancy Spero b. Ohio 1926d. New York 2009
Nancy Spero, Female Bomb, 1966
Nancy Spero, Paper Mirror, MoMA
Nancy Spero, Collaboration, Art21

Across the U.S. and Into the New

Cy Twomblyb. Virginia 1928d. Rome 2011
Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1960
Carol Nigro, Twombly's Humanist Upbringing, 2008
Claire Daigle, Lingering at the threshold between word and image, 2008
Ad Reinhardt, b. New York 1913d. New York1967
Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, 1963
Ad Reinhardt, Ann Tompkin, MoMA 2010
Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, Smarthistory

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Washington D.C. Color Field Movement

Alma Thomasb. Georgia 1891d. Washington, D.C. 1978
Alma Thomas, Red Abstraction, oil on canvas, 1959
Alma Thomas, Light Blue Nursery, acrylic on canvas, 1968
Alma Thomas
Alex Katz b. Brooklyn 1927
Alex Katz, Ada, 1957

more on Alex Katz

Calvin Tomkins, Alex Katz's Life in Art, 2018

Lucian Freud b. Berlin 1922 d. London 2011
Lucian Freud, Reflection with Two Children, 1965
Lucian Freud, Naked Man Back View, 1991-92
Alice Neel b. Pennsylvania. d. New York 1984
Alice Neel, Kitty Pearson, 1973
Alice Neel Documentary Trailer
Richard Diebenkorn
b. Portland, Oregon 1922.
d. Berkeley 1993
Richard Diebenkorn, Seawall, 1957
Richard Diebenkorn, Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, 1965
Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park Series No. 49, 1972
Wayne Thiebaudb. Long Beach, CA, 1920
Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963
Wayne Thiebaud, The Draftsman

Coenties Slip, Manhattan

"..the group commiserated about the vagaries of semi-legal housing, which can be a powerful unifying force. Heat, hot water, and basic amenities were in short supply, though socializing—often at one of the numerous bars in the vicinity—was part of the deal. “I paint to make friends,” Martin once said, “and hope I will have as many as Mozart.” Ryan Leahey, Artsy

Coenties Slip, Lower Manhattan
Robert Indiana (with hat), Elsworth Kelly (smoking), Agnes Martin (right) and others, 1958, by Hans Namuth Artsy
Agnes Martin
b. Canada 1912
d. Taos 2004
Agnes Martin, Untitled, 1960
Podcast: Olivia Lang, Bow Down
Agnes Martin, Beauty is in Your Mind
Lenore Tawney
b. Ohio 1907 d. New York 2007
Lenore Tawney, The Queen, 1962
Lenore Tawney
James Rosenquist b. North Dakota 1933d. New York 2017
James Rosenquist, F-111, 1965

Vanguards of the Late 50s through the 1960s

Art Terms
Conceptual Art
Neue Wilde
Fluxus
Gutai

The Art Assignment: The Case for Contemporary Art
Photography in the Expanded Field: Painting, Performance, and the Neo-Avant-Garde
Nina Horisaki-Christens | On the Blurring of Art and Life, or Toward a More Human Experience, Jun 11, 2012

The Body and the Physicality of Making

Fluxus had no single unifying style. Artists used a range of media and processes adopting a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude to creative activity, often staging random performances and using whatever materials were at hand to make art. Seeing themselves as an alternative to academic art and music, Fluxus was a democratic form of creativity open to anyone. Collaborations were encouraged between artists and across artforms, and also with the audience or spectator. It valued simplicity and anti-commercialism, with chance and accident playing a big part in the creation of works, and humour also being an important element. (Tate)

Art Terms
Fluxus
Gutai

Yves Klein
b. Nice 1928
d. Paris 1962
Yves Klein, Untitled blue monochrome (IKB 82), 1959
Jean Tinguely
b. Switzerland 1925d. Switserland 1991
Jean Tinguely, Fragment from: Homage to New York, 1960
Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York, 1960
Kazuo Shiraga b. Japan 1924d. Japan 2008
Kazuo Shiraga, Doro ni idomu, 1955
Georg Baselitz b. Germany 1938
Georg Baselitz Rebell, mid 1960s
Joseph Beuys b. Germany 1921d. Germany 1986
Joseph Beuys, Explaining Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965
Beuys Documentary, Trailer, 2017
Nam June Paik
b. South Korea 1932 d. Florida 2006
Nam June Paik, TV Bra for Living Sculpture, 1969
Alexxa Gotthardt, Charlotte Moorman Is Finally Remembered as More Than “The Topless Cellist”, 2016
Yoko Ono
b. born 1933d.
Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964
Yoko Ono, Clip: Cut Piece, 1964
Valie Export b. Austria 1940
Valie Export, Action Pants, Genital Panic, 1969
Valie Export, Touch Cinema, 1968

Conceptual Art, Minimalism and Materials

Art Terms
Conceptual Art
Minimalism
Post-Minimalism
Brutalism
What is Brutalism?

“What you see is what you see.” Frank Stella, ARTnews (original interview 1966)

Why is Conceptual Art So Tricky to Explain?
The Case for Minimalism
The End of Painting", 1966 interview with Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Bruce Glaser, edited by Lucy Lippard, ARTnews.
Joseph Kosuth b. Ohio 1945
Joseph Kosuth, Three Chairs, b. America 1965
Frank Stella b. Massachusetts 1936
Frank Stella, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, 1959, enamel on canvas, 7’6” x 10’11”
Frank Stella, Harran II, 1967. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; gift, Mr. Irving Blum, 1982. © 2015 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Frank Stella: Rebuilding Painting. Photo: Olkieniki synagogue, view from the northeast. Photography: unknown author (presumably Sz. Zajczyk), before 1939
Donald Judd
b. Missouri 1928
d. New York 1994
Donald Judd, Untitled, lacquer on galvanized iron, 1967
Donald Judd

more on Donald Judd

Donald Judd, Specific Objects, 1965

Marcel Breuer b. Hungary 1902 d. New York 1981
Marcel Breuer, The Breuer Building, NYC, 1966
Marcel Breuer, The Breuer Building, NYC, 1966
Carl Andre b. Massachusetts 1935
Carl Andre, 144 Magnesium Square, 1969
Carl Andre, Equivalent VIII, 1966
Sol Lewitt b. Hartford 1928 d. New York 2007
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing 51 (Blue Snap Lines), June 1970, Conceptualism
Tate Shots: Sol Lewitt (from the perspective of his assistant, Jeremy Ziemman)
Abbi Jacobson, Sam Irby, A Piece of Work: The Writing on the Wall

more on Sol Lewitt

L.A. Light and Space Movement

Art Term: Light and Space Movement

James Turrell b. Los Angeles 1943
James Turrell, Afrum I (White), 1067
James Turrell, You Who Look
Mary Corse b. California 1945
Mary Corse, Untitled (Space + Electric Light), 1968
Mary Corse, Untitled (Light Painting), glass microspheres in acrylic on canvas, 1971
Dan Flavinb. New York 1933d. New York 1996
Dan Flavin, green crossing greens (to Piet Mondrian who lacked green), 1966

Post-Minimalism

Art Term: Post-Minimalism

Lynda Benglis b. Louisiana 1941
Lynda Benglis, Quartered Meteor, lead and steel on steel base, 1969

“The availability of liquid latex in the late 1960s was a critical development for them both; its sensual qualities, as [the art historian] Lucy Lippard put it, offered ‘expressive vestiges shunned by Minimalism’." Garreth Harris, The Art Newspaper

Eva Hesse b. Germany 1936d. New York 1970
Eva Hesse, Expanded Expansion, fiberglas, polyester resin, latex, cheesecloth, 1969
Eva Hesse with her sculpture Several in her New York studio in 1969 and Hannah Wilke work titled Super-t-Art (1974)

Interdisciplinary Crossovers

Art Term: Arte Povera

Bruce Nauman b. Indiana 1941
Bruce Nauman, Choreographed by Meredity Monk, Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square, 1967-68
Meredith Monk, 16 Millimeter Earrings, 1966
Meredith Monk Interview
Richard Serra b. San Francisco 1938
Richard Serra, Splashing, 1968
Richard Serra, Hand Catching Lead, 1968
Jannis Kounellis b. Greece 1937 d. Rome 2017
Jannis Kounellis, Cavalli, 1967
Vito Acconci b. New York 1940d. New York 2017
Vito Acconci, Following Piece, October 1969
Vito Acconci, Following Piece, October 1969

Pop Art

Art Term:
Pop Art
Capitalist Realism

Richard Hamilton b. London 1922d. North End 2011
Richard Hamilton, Interior II, 1964
Andy Warhol b. Pittsburg 1928d. New York 1987
Andy Warhol, Green Coca-Cola Bottles, screenprint on canvas, 1962
Warhol: Ways of Making
Warhol: Ways of Being
Claus Oldenburg b. Sweden 1929
Claus Oldenburg, Soft Cake, 1962
Claus Oldenburg, Soft Cake, 1962
Roy Lichtensteinb. New York 1923d. New York 1997
Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, 1963

West Coast Pop

"...the artists working in California seldom followed Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol in copying images directly from advertising and popular culture, and their work was typically less ironic towards its commercial subject matter." Grove Art Online

Robert Arneson b. California 1930d. California 1992
Robert Arneson, No Deposit, No Return, 1961
Robert Arneson, Klown, 1978
David Hockney b. England 1937
David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967
Sotheby's Auction of The Splash, Jan. 2020
Vija Celmins b. Latvia 1938
Vija Celmins, Explosion at Sea, 1966
Vija Celmins, Suspended Plane, 1966
Viha Celmins, Painting Takes Just a Second to Go In, 2014
Ed Ruscha b. Nebraska 1937
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, screenprint 1966
The Tensions of Words and Image, 2013
Peter Saul b. San Fransico 1934
Peter Saul, Saigon, 1967
Peter Saul, Saigon, 1967
Peter Saul, Bush at Abu Ghraib, 2006
banner photo: Carolee Schneemann, Eye Body ,1963