Event
Rainer Metzger: Swinging London
Wed, May 02, 2012 7:00 pm CEST
The author Rainer Metzger presents his book “Swinging London. The Sixties. Leben & Kultur 1956-1970” [Swinging London. The Sixties. Life and Culture 1956-1970], Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2012
Mary Quant’s miniskirt and Vidal Sassoon’s “Bob”, Pop Art and Op Art, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, the photographer David Bailey and his favorite model Jean Shrimpton, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Emma Peel – in fashionable, formfitting catsuit – and James Bond, the group of architects “Archigram” and their utopian designs: by mid-century, the cultural capital of the world shifted from Paris to London.
During the “swinging sixties” at least, it was the British capital that was epicenter of the trends that have persisted through to the present.
Three phenomena carried the blast off into the future: more youth presence, more wealth, and more mass-communication are the features of the 60s and the pop-culture that were to define the period. The fact that it was London and not one of the other capital cities of the West in which this pop-culture was to really come into its own is what forms the thematic focus of this book.
Rainer Metzger has yet again succeeded in providing an illuminating overview of that cultural phenomenon which thrust the city into the limelight of world public interest.
Welcome and introduction: Peter Weibel
Following the reading a discussion round with publisher Thomas Neurath (Thames & Hudson Publishers), Christian Brandstätter (Christian Brandstätter Verlag) and gallery owner Barry Miles, in whose gallery Yoko Ono and John Lennon once met eachother, will take place.
Rainer Metzger, born in Niederbayern, 1961, is an art historian and author, and is professor at the Karlsruhe Academy of Art since 2004. He has written numerous articles and essays in daily newspapers and professional publications. He currently resides in Vienna and Karlsruhe. Previous publications by Christian Brandstätter Verlag include: Der Tod bei der Arbeit (2003), Gustav Klimt – Das graphische Werk (2005), Berlin – Die 20er Jahre (2006) und München – Die große Zeit um 1900. (2008).
Mary Quant’s miniskirt and Vidal Sassoon’s “Bob”, Pop Art and Op Art, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, the photographer David Bailey and his favorite model Jean Shrimpton, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Emma Peel – in fashionable, formfitting catsuit – and James Bond, the group of architects “Archigram” and their utopian designs: by mid-century, the cultural capital of the world shifted from Paris to London.
During the “swinging sixties” at least, it was the British capital that was epicenter of the trends that have persisted through to the present.
Three phenomena carried the blast off into the future: more youth presence, more wealth, and more mass-communication are the features of the 60s and the pop-culture that were to define the period. The fact that it was London and not one of the other capital cities of the West in which this pop-culture was to really come into its own is what forms the thematic focus of this book.
Rainer Metzger has yet again succeeded in providing an illuminating overview of that cultural phenomenon which thrust the city into the limelight of world public interest.
Welcome and introduction: Peter Weibel
Following the reading a discussion round with publisher Thomas Neurath (Thames & Hudson Publishers), Christian Brandstätter (Christian Brandstätter Verlag) and gallery owner Barry Miles, in whose gallery Yoko Ono and John Lennon once met eachother, will take place.
Rainer Metzger, born in Niederbayern, 1961, is an art historian and author, and is professor at the Karlsruhe Academy of Art since 2004. He has written numerous articles and essays in daily newspapers and professional publications. He currently resides in Vienna and Karlsruhe. Previous publications by Christian Brandstätter Verlag include: Der Tod bei der Arbeit (2003), Gustav Klimt – Das graphische Werk (2005), Berlin – Die 20er Jahre (2006) und München – Die große Zeit um 1900. (2008).
Organizing Organization / Institution
ZKM
Accompanying program