The Golden Age of American Rock Posters in Budapest
Until the 31st of December, the Kogart Gallery in Budapest exhibits From San Francisco to Woodstock – the Golden Age of American Posters 1965-1971. The Kogart Gallery remembers the music festival which marked an era and a way of resistance towards the society of consumption in the 20th century, through posters which shaped the psychedelic art trend, concentrating in the products of the area of the San Francisco Bay.
The posters mark, in a majestic way, a time of great social transformations which shaped art, music and politics, and generated a unique aesthetic in all the social fields. In those years, San Francisco, California, was an effervescent place full of activities which changed the everyday life of the city and its surroundings with the Beatnik and Hippy culture, as well as with more radical movements such as the Black Panthers who fought for civil rights and social change.
The graphic work which these exhibited posters show not only have the historical interest of remembering a time and the Woodstock Festival, but in them they have the signs of a new visual art current, which are linked to Central European traditions. The exhibition also contains other items of that time, such as original documents of the manuscripts which were made for these projects, sketches and the tools used for their making.
The Woodstock Festival, whose complete name was Woodstock. 3 days of Peace & Music, was the music and art rock festival which shined the light the most on the hippy movement and their ideals of pacific co-existence and rejecting the Vietnam War, where thousands of people died every day. This took place on a farm in Bethel, in Sullivan County, close to New York, on the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th of August 1969. The initial project was to carry it out in the town of Woodstock, Ulster County, New York, but the local conservative population opposed the idea of the festival taking place where men and women of dubious reputation would attend, who would sleep together and as a group. From there it got its initial name but, in the end, Sam Yasgur convinced his father Max Yagsur to facilitate the lands of his property.
The festival, full of passivity, only had three deaths, but none of them product of violence, and it gave birth to two children full of the spirit of love and peace.
On its great stage, they sung against the war and in favour of the revolution, they paid tribute to Latin America, the burned American flags in disgust due to their imperialist politics, and the most important rock icons of all time shone, such as Joe Cocker with his t-shirt which shaped fashion, Jimi Hendrix, who made the most impressive guitar solo ever playing the American anthem and imitating war sounds with his strumming, and Joan Baez with her songs of social protest, amongst over a hundred artists.
The documentary on Woodstock. 3 Days of Peace & Music, directed by Michael Wadleigh and edited and produced among others by Martin Scorsese, reached the cinema screens around the world in 1970, causing a real furore among the young population. For this documentary, the director obtained the Oscar for Best Documentary.
For more information: http://kogart.hu/kogart/en/index.jsp
Nancy Guzman
This exhibition is a great way to remember the golden age of the 60s, so rent apartments in Budapest and relive those times where the dream for world peace seemed to be within reach.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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December 21st, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Fancy Hippie #Vintage? #Budapest #Woodstock the Golden Age of American Posters 1965-1971 http://t.co/niflzl6X