<< BACK

CONTACT

SEARCH

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Lazarides Gallery
77 Quayside
+44 191 2212560
Newcastle
upon Tyne
May ’68 – Paris: Posters from the Student Riots
September 5-
November 1, 2008

May ’68 – Paris: Posters from the Student Riots is comprised of over 50 surviving, anonymous and original pieces of work from the era — defining 1968 Parisian student riots.

This was the year when political struggle for freedom culminated in global protests that shaped the future of youth culture. Paris in May 1968, under the conservative constraints of De Gaulle and amid an atmosphere of poverty and unemployment, played host to some of the most widespread and fervent revolts the city had witnessed. Clashes between citizens and state brought Paris to a halt and left its leader clinging on for his dear political life.

After a week of particularly violent clashes, militant posters with strong colours and bold graphic messages started appearing in the streets — plastered on walls, pasted onto barricades, and carried as placards in demonstrations. Produced as "weapons in the service of the struggle" by the Atelier Populaire, the outfit newly set up by students and teachers at the École des Beaux Arts, these anonymous prints combine powerful imagery with impassioned slogans on mistrust of the media, hatred of the reigning political party and solidarity with the workers to provocative effect.

Used as propaganda, the posters are graphic reminders of what was a year in history no one will ever forget. The bold and striking designs influenced the DIY aesthetic of the student revolt generation as well as bearing witness to a powerful era of change. Hundreds of silk screen prints were produced during this time that acted as a manifestation of an uprising that swept through the social boundaries of gender, class, age and education, but few remain. The surviving posters now on show at Lazarides Gallery Newcastle represent the art of a revolution, as relevant today as ever before.