revolution in the air - the sixties and the stedelijk
Exhibition — Jul 26 until Dec 30, 2003
This presentation is a deep dive into the collections of Pop Art, photography, posters, design and applied art from the 1960s and '70s, with emphasis on the period 1965-1975.
'Revolution in the Air' reveals the élan with which the Stedelijk was collecting in all sorts of experimental fieds at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s. At the same time it shows how experimentation and engagement sometimes went hand in hand with more traditional collection areas.
The attention for reportage photography from revolutionary centres such as Berkeley, Paris and Amsterdam, and war zones such as Nicaragua is striking, as are the strongly politically slanted posters from the same era (including those from the psychedelic movement), the jewellery art that was opening new frontiers, the remarkable popularity of textile art around 1970, and the confrontation of Italian, organic design versus Northern European functionalism. One cabinet is devoted entirely to the graphic design of Wim Crouwel for the Stedelijk in the period concerned.