On Art and Counterculture in the 1960s

In the 1960s, the culture and art world was evolving fast. From the counterculture movement making waves and young people demanding peace- art was a tool to create awareness and grasp social and political attention. The 1960s was a great time for art and music with transformative products of the time. Not only was visual art and music used to rally anti-war sentiments- but also the cinema during the golden age of Hollywood. The French New Wave movement was producing some of the most beautiful and narratively stunning works with directors like Jean Luc Godard. Alfred Hitchcock was also creating iconic films during this time such as 1960’s “Psycho” which completely changed the way directors were creating horror movies.  

The times were changing and so were graphic design and product design- featured during the times of the Bauhaus- where designers were taking a completely new approach to creating. The Bauhaus transformed the art of design, so not only did everything start to modernize in the 1960s, but this mindset of simplifying and unifying production into more geometric shapes.

Rock and roll became one of the most popular and unifying genres of music of the time. It symbolized rebellion and went in tandem with the drug counterculture of the era. The Beatles- one of the most popular rock bands that came out of this time released a lot of different music with anti-war ideology, and later albums were created as a product of using the drug LSD. They were extremely popular amongst the youth of the time and boosted the Hippie movement- another subculture promoting alternative beliefs of the time such as free love, psychedelic usage, and sexual liberation.

Overall, it seemed that during this time in all mediums of art and music, there were many players who changed the ethos of art, music, cinema, media, and design for decades to come. During this time, the hope that was exemplified by the youth allowed for enormous opportunities and space for artists to project their vision of the future and messages to the public. It seemed that this free-love approach and view of society and the world would allow for some of the most creative and outstanding projects to arrive out of this era.