1960s Art: Top Artists, Styles And Trends

Pop art, op art and psychedelia - the decade art escaped the gallery.

Below: the artists of the 1960s, the styles and movements, what was changing in art and design, and the pictures that were actually up in British homes.

Useful for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone grew up looking at.

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Shop prints and posters Look back to 1960 Look back to 1961 Look back to 1962

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Original art prints, funny cards and pin badges, printed in the UK. Order on a working day and it usually goes out the same day.

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Artists of the 1960s

  • David Hockney, from the Royal College to California.
  • Bridget Riley, whose op art paintings made people dizzy on purpose.
  • Andy Warhol - Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and the Factory.
  • Roy Lichtenstein, painting comic panels at wall size.
  • Peter Blake, who designed the Sgt Pepper sleeve in 1967.
  • Mary Quant and Ossie Clark, designers as culturally central as painters.

Styles and movements

  • Pop art - advertising, packaging and celebrity treated as subject matter.
  • Op art, and its immediate theft by the fashion trade.
  • Psychedelia: swirling type, saturated colour, Art Nouveau revived and distorted.
  • Minimalism in New York, cool and unimpressed by all of the above.
  • Brutalist architecture, loved by architects and nobody else.

Art and design trends

  • The album sleeve becomes the most widely owned piece of graphic design in Britain.
  • The poster boom - bedroom walls become a gallery for the first time.
  • The Beatles and the boutique make British design a global export.
  • Art schools produce as many musicians as painters.
  • Colour television arrives at the end of the decade and changes what design has to do.

On the walls at home

  • Posters bought from Athena and blu-tacked to the wall.
  • Big bold wallpaper, orange and brown, and a paper lampshade.
  • Album sleeves propped on the shelf as decoration.
  • The first wave of mass-produced framed prints in every high street.

Years covered in the 1960s

  • 1960 - Coronation Street began, national service ended and the sixties had not started yet. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1960
  • 1961 - The Beatles started playing the Cavern and Yuri Gagarin went into space. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1961
  • 1962 - Love Me Do, the first James Bond film and the Cuban missile crisis. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1962
  • 1963 - The big freeze, Beatlemania, Doctor Who and the assassination of President Kennedy. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1963
  • 1964 - Top of the Pops, pirate radio, mods and rockers, and BBC Two. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1964
  • 1965 - Churchill's funeral, the 70mph limit and the Beatles at Shea Stadium. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1965
  • 1966 - England won the World Cup, and then Aberfan happened in October. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1966
  • 1967 - Sgt. Pepper, Radio 1, colour television and the summer of love. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1967
  • 1968 - Manchester United in Europe, Dad's Army and a year of protest. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1968
  • 1969 - The moon landing, the Beatles on the roof and the end of the decade. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1969
  • That is every 1960s year we have written up so far: 1960 to 1969.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one style from the list and let it decide the colours, the lettering and the invitations.
  • Quiz round: read an artist and ask for the decade, or read a style and ask for one artist who worked in it.
  • Reminiscence: ask what picture hung over the fireplace when they were young. Nearly everybody remembers.
  • Anyone born in 1960 turns 50 in 2010, 60 in 2020 and 70 in 2030.

Shop prints and posters

Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 1960 Look back to 1961 Look back to 1962

How to write it so it lands

  • What hung in galleries and what hung at home were two different decades. Both are on this page.
  • For a themed party, take the colour palette from the decade's design rather than its paintings.
  • Charity shops are still the best place to find genuine prints and frames from any era.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

Who were the most important artists of the 1960s?

David Hockney, from the Royal College to California. The full list above names the artists worth knowing from the decade.

What art styles were popular in the 1960s?

Pop art - advertising, packaging and celebrity treated as subject matter. The styles section above covers the rest of the movements.

What art did people have in their homes in the 1960s?

Posters bought from Athena and blu-tacked to the wall. The section above lists what was actually on British walls, which is rarely the same as what was in the galleries.

Do you sell fine art?

No. We make our own art prints, greeting cards and pin badges in the UK - original work, printed here. This page is free to read and free to copy.

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