How Poster Art of the “Long 1960s” Fueled International Solidarity

In the mid-1960s political posters began a renaissance.4 In the United States, one transformative moment happened when the San Francisco Mime Troupe (pronounced “meem,” an homage to Greek and Roman exaggerated theater—they were not silent) was arrested in 1965 for deliberately performing “obscenity” in public.5 Their new publicist, Bill Graham, mounted an enormously successful defense benefit that would launch his career as a rock music impresario. Promotional art for those early concerts was wild, innovative, affordable, and hugely popular.6 At the same time, artists in countries such as Poland, Mexico, and Cuba were experimenting with this powerful medium, and much of it targeted to young people. By the late 1960s posters would never be the same.

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