Skip to Main Content

The Sixties: Art

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Art in the 1960s

Like many other facets of culture, the 1960s brought about a revolution in the art world. "At the beginning of the 1960s, it was possible to think of works of art as belonging to one or two broad categories: painting and sculpture. Cubist and other collages, Futurist performance and Dadaist events had already begun to challenge this simple duopoly, and photography had increasingly been making strong claims for recognition as an art medium...In the years since 1960, there has been a breaking down of the certainties of this system of classification...Some artists still paint and others make what tradition would refer to as sculpture, but these practices now take their place among a far wider range of activities." (Michael Archer, p. 11) There are many artists who possibly could represent the Sixties. But it is Andy Warhol and Campbell Soup Cans and Peter Max with his colorful psychedelic and pop art who made the greatest impressions on the public.

Some Visual Artists of the Sixties

  • Diane Arbus, photographer
  • Richard Avedon, photographer
  • Francis Bacon, painter
  • Joseph Beuys, sculptor, performance artist
  • Alexander Calder, sculptor
  • Chuck Close, painter, photographer
  • Niki de Saint Phalle, painter, sculptor, performance, conceptual and installation artist
  • Jim Dine, painter, printmaker, sculptor, conceptual and performance artist
  • ​Helen Frankenthaler, painter
  • Lucian Freud, painter
  • Grace Hartigan, painter
  • Eva Hesse, sculptor
  • David Hockney, painter
  • Jasper Johns, painter, printmaker
  • Alex Katz, painter
  • Jacob Lawrence, painter
  • Roy Lichtenstein, painter, sculptor, lithographer
  • Agnes Martin, painter
  • Peter Max, painter, mass media artist
  • Louise Nevelson, sculptor
  • Georgia O'Keefe, painter
  • Claes Oldenburg, sculptor
  • Yoko Ono, conceptual and performance artist
  • Sigmar Polke, multi-media artist
  • Robert Rauschenberg, collagist, painter, graphic artist
  • Brigit Riley, painter
  • James Rosenquist, painter
  • Mark Rothko, painter
  • George Segal, sculptor, photographer, painter
  • David Smith, sculptor
  • Robert Smithson, sculptor and writer
  • Frank Stella, painter, printmaker
  • Cy Twombly, draftsman, painter, sculptor
  • Andy Warhol, painter, draftsman, filmmaker, printer
  • Andrew Wyeth, painter

Sources: The Art Story Online and The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Stroder & Phillips.

Art and Artists

Art Movements of the Sixties

  • Abstract Expressionism
  • Arte Povera
  • Bay Area Painters
  • Body Art
  • British Pop Art
  • Conceptual Art
  • Contemporary Realism
  • Earth Art
  • Feminist Art
  • Fluxus
  • The Gutai Group
  • Happenings
  • Hard Edged Painting
  • Minimalism
  • Neo-Dada
  • Nouveau Realisme
  • Op Art
  • Performance Art
  • Photorealism
  • Pop Art
  • Post-Painterly Abstraction
  • Video Art
  • Washington Color School

Sources: The Art Story Online

Songs about art and photography

  • Paint It Black, The Rolling Stones (1966)
  • A Dangling Conversation, Simon and Garfunkel (1966) 
  • A Poem on the Underground Wall, Simon and Garfunkel (1966) 
  • Painting Box, The Incredible String Band  (1967) 
  • People Take Pictures of Each Other, The Kinks (1968) 
  • I Had a King, Joni Mitchell (1969) 
  • So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright, Simon and Garfunkel (1970) 
  • Andy Warhol, David Bowie (1971) 
  • Pictures at an Exhibition, Emerson Lake and Palmer (1971) 
  • Vincent, Don Mclean (1971) 
  • Kodachrome by Paul Simon (1973) 
  • The Night Watch, King Crimson  (1973) 
  • Photograph, Ringo Starr (1973) 

Source:allmusic.com
Songs found on Spotify

Additional References

Strodder, C., & Phillips, M. (2007). The encyclopedia of sixties cool: A celebration of the grooviest people, events, and artifacts of the 1960s. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.