Georgia, Idaho, Washington, and Wisconsin artists responded to Overture Center Galleries’ invitation to answer the question: “How do I view the Sixties today?” Their interpretations are compiled into an exhibit, “The Sixties Revisited,” in the Playhouse Gallery on the lower level of the Overture Center, 201 State St., on view through June 24.
Artists were asked to explore the complex and contentious legacy of the era through an art medium of their choice, including 2-D and 3-D. Sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, the Civil Rights Movement, “white backlash,” Vietnam, threat of nuclear war, the Cuban Missile Crisis, feminism, the environmental movement — nothing was off limits for the artists. The exhibit includes letterpress, paintings, textiles, woodcut, lenticular prints, mixed media sculptures, collage and more, that address the historical realities of the Sixties and its reverberations over the last 50 years.
Some exhibiting artists experienced the 1960s firsthand, whether as adults or children. Others were not born until a decade, or two, or three, later.
Mary Alice Wimmer [MFA ’64], of Madison, created her woodcut, “Napalm — No Escape,” in 1967 as a reaction to seeing the horrors on the nightly news.