The Struggle for Utopia
Hippie Modernism: BAMPFA’s insightful exhibition on 60’s counterculture
Hippie Modernism shows us how the 60’s counterculture, once dismissed as a social and aesthetic anomaly, introduced ideas and techniques that have profoundly shaped contemporary life. The BAMPFA presentation highlights the key role the Bay Area played in the art, architecture, and design of the counterculture movement.
Creative innovators in Bay Area communities sought to create radical change—technological, political, and ecological—on the streets, in the classroom, and in government policy and they sought to achieve this by spreading a message of love and unity, as well as caring for our precious resources.
“While the counterculture was said to be a failure, it was actually very much
successful, and we are feeling the effects of that today.”
– Andrew Blauvelt, Cranbrook Art Museum
Lawrence Rinder, Director and Chief Curator of the BAMPFA, talks comparative ideology between the 60’s and now.
Andrew Blauvelt, Director of the Cranbrook Art Museum, shares his insights from having curated this exhibition over the last ten years.
Greg Castillo, Guest Curator of this exhibition and Associate Professor at UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design reflects on hippie wisdom.
