Richard Lindner’s 1969 “Heart,” at MMoCA.
Art exhibits at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and Overture Center for the Arts revisit the imagery of the 1960s like a vibrant, colorful acid flashback that may remind some of us what we missed.
Far Out: Art from the 1960s at MMoCA is the larger exhibit, while the more intimate display in Overture’s Playhouse Gallery is titled The Sixties Revisited. Taken together, the shows give a glimpse of the art, culture and politics from one of the country’s defining eras. The shows are timed to coincide with the June 14-16 Madison Reunion, a cultural Woodstock organized by Ben and Judy Sidran that is attracting baby boomers from around the country.
Mel Becker Solomon, MMoCA’s curator of the permanent collection, selected 83 pieces from more than 700 artworks from the 1960s in the museum’s collection for Far Out. She has created a comprehensive display of Op, Pop, Conceptual and Minimalist art, with a little bit of Fluxus — interactive performance art — thrown in.
Roy Lichtenstein’s 1964 “Sandwich and Soda,” at MMoCA.
Artists in the 1960s wanted to break through artificially imposed boundaries and explore new means of expression, says Becker Solomon. “We see the manipulation of traditional art to become more than paint on a flat surface,” Solomon says. “This is art of the everyday, accessible to all people and for everyone to enjoy.”
A small Alexander Calder mobile in a plexiglass case anchors the center of MMoCA’s second floor gallery, with the works of Romare Bearden, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, the Chicago Imagists and others stretching out in all directions.
Some pieces, like Paul Feeley’s “Elphekah” — two 6-foot intersecting wooden panels with wavy enamel-painted edges — have not seen the light of day since being acquired by MMoCA. Meanwhile, Madison artist William Weege’s massive five-panel screenprint and photolithograph collage “Long Live Life,” a blend of sexual and violent imagery, is familiar to local art fans, usually provoking a strong response.
Alison Knowles’ “Shoes of Your Choice” is an example of interactive art from the Fluxus movement. A plexiglass case contains four different styles of period shoes, with a music stand sitting in front. Gallery goers are invited to remove their own shoes, set them on the stand and describe them and why they like them.
“Art, essentially, is whatever the artist says it is,” Solomon says. “I’m glad to see from the dirt on the stand that people are interacting with this exhibit.”
MMoCA’s exhibit opens with a timeline matching art with significant historic events of the 1960s. But that’s about where the explicit political references end, leaving patrons to decide for themselves what the pieces mean.
Chris Revelle’s 2011 “Primer” at Overture.
The Overture exhibit, on the other hand, fully embraces the politics of the era, and includes more recent art that echoes the era’s styles and political sentiments.
“We’re revisiting the ’60s from a contemporary standpoint,” says Beth Racette, Overture’s programming and community engagement manager. “This is about how the ’60s influence has brought us to where we are now.”
The exhibit features the work of 34 artists, including four works that include interpretations of the American flag.
Racette, who is also a working artist, has created one of the show’s most interesting pieces in both content and presentation.
“CoIntelPro Criminal Profits” consists of a mixed media tableau arranged inside and outside two separate birdcages. Black cats, bones, ceramic hearts and even a Liberty Bell-shaped whisky bottle languish behind the bars, while a world globe covered with toy fighter planes, tanks and other war machines crown another cage.
The title is a contraction of Counter Intelligence Programs, which the FBI operated from 1956 to 1971 in an attempt to destroy U.S. civil rights organizations through infiltration, fraud and assassination. The most famous campaign involved the Black Panther Party, a militaristic social program designed to protect African American neighborhoods.
Just above Racette’s work hangs a simple embroidered fabric piece titled “Memory Cloth – The Sting.” Created by artist Leslee Nelson, the piece recalls the time in 1969 when the FBI infiltrated a Madison women’s artist group she belonged to.
“This one is just for fun,” Racette says.
The show also has crayons cast as brightly colored M16 shells, a large wooden cutout shaped like a handgun and striped like the U.S. flag, and other evocative pieces that speak to the issues that bridge the eras.
“There are some very personal stories reflected in the art,” says Racette. “I wanted to give people the flavor of what was going on in the ’60s.”
Far Out: Art of the 1960s
Runs at MMoCA through Sept. 2.
The Sixties Revisited
Runs at Overture through June 24; an opening reception will take place in the Playhouse Gallery on June 13, 6-8 p.m. Gallery-goers are encouraged to wear period clothing. Admission is free to both exhibits.
