Edward Ruscha, Double Standard, 1969; Color screenprint; The Francisca S. Winston Fund, by exchange

The 1960s: Prints and Editions

Saturday, March 17, 2007—Sunday, September 2, 2007
Gallery 263
Free Exhibition

The decade of the 1960s was one of the most tumultuous and difficult periods of the twentieth century. Major social, cultural, and political events, such as the war in Vietnam, student protests, the civil rights movement, the moon landing, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. left indelible impressions on American society and on the consciousness of many Americans. Change was the decade’s watchword. And America would never again be the same.

In the world of art, leading contemporary artists also found new directions, openly challenging the prevailing views of the Abstract Expressionists, experimenting with new forms of art, and exploring new ideas on how art and life intersected. Part of this artistic renewal involved a renaissance in American and British printmaking. Where making prints had in the past been largely a solitary and independent endeavor, practiced mainly by professional printmakers, the 1960s saw the rise of the modern collaborative print workshop, where leading painters and sculptors were teamed with highly skilled printers to make editions of original prints and artist’s books.

This exhibition showcases a selection of prints and editioned books and multiples made between 1960 and 1970. The works on view have all been drawn from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ permanent collection of graphic arts, and include important examples by such familiar figures as Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Lee Bontecou, Cy Twombly, Jim Dine, Ed Ruscha, Grace Hartigan, and Roy Lichtenstein. These and other leading artists represented in the exhibition have in many ways defined the art of the 1960s, creating some of the most compelling images of the twentieth century.