Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia

February 8–May 21, 2017

Explore how artists, architects, and designers intersected with the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Read full description
  • Clay Geerdes: Cockettes Go Shopping, 1972; digital print; 42 x 28 in.; courtesy David Miller, from the estate of Clay Geerdes.

  • Haus-Rucker-Co (Günter Zamp Kelp, Klaus Pinter, and Laurids Ortner): Environment Transformer / Fliegenkopf (Environment Transformer / Flyhead),1968; courtesy Archive Zamp Kelp. Photo: Ben Rose.

  • Corita Kent: yellow submarine, 1967; silkscreen; 23 x 25 in.; Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White.

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Events

  • Saturday, May 20, 2 PM

    Analog Light Show Gathering

    Get a behind-the-scenes look at the psychedelic art of the light show at this gathering of members of original performance groups as well as recent innovators.

  • Saturday, May 13, 1 PM

    Hippie Modernism Forum: Creative Communes

    Could rural communes be the template for a new geography of creativity? Ramón Sender Barayón, Erin Elder, and Fritz Haeg discuss the question along with moderator Greg Castillo.

  • Friday, May 12, 6 PM

    Country Womyn Revisited

    A reading and release party for a new publication in response to Country Women, a magazine created in the 1970s by women living in communes in Mendocino County.

  • Sundays and Wednesdays

    Guided Tour: Hippie Modernism (May)

    Guided exhibition tour of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia led by UC Berkeley graduate students.

  • Saturday, April 15, 1 PM

    Hippie Modernism Forum: Fluid Identities

    Fayette Hauser, Lauren Onkey, and Brontez Purnell talk about how reinventions of identity—reflected in rock music, performance art, and other flamboyant forms of expression—propelled the counterculture movement. Moderated by Juana María Rodríguez.

  • Thursday, April 6, 5–7 PM

    Political Poster Draw Club

    Come by the BAMPFA Art Lab to draw and collage your own political posters inspired by the protest art in Hippie Modernism.

  • Sundays and Wednesdays

    Guided Tour: Hippie Modernism (April)

    Guided exhibition tour of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia led by UC Berkeley graduate students.

  • Saturday, April 1, 1 PM

    SOLD OUT: Michael Pollan and Simon Sadler in Conversation

    Journalist and best-selling author Pollan and architectural and urban historian Sadler talk about the history and use of psychedelics in therapeutic, philosophical, and cultural contexts.

  • Sunday, March 19, 2–4 PM

    Native Funk and Flash with Alexandra Jacopetti Hart

    Join artist Hart for a talk and clothing customization workshop inspired by her 1974 book Native Funk and Flash: An Emerging Folk Art.

  • Saturday, March 11, 1 PM

    Hippie Modernism Forum: Liberated Territories

    Anthony Raynsford, Bonnie Ora Sherk, and Lisa Uddin explore the radical geographies of counterculture politics in a discussion moderated by Sean Burns.

  • Wednesday, March 8, 5–7 PM

    Hippie Modernism Draw Club

    Explore the power of observational drawing at a figure drawing class with a live nude model.

  • Sunday, March 5, 2 PM

    Larry Miller: Blueprint for Counter Education

    Miller, author of Blueprint for Counter Education, explores objects and publications that informed his defining work of Vietnam War–era radical pedagogy.

  • Wednesday–Sunday, various times

    Theater 2 Hippie Modernism Shorts

    Four programs of short films screening each afternoon feature works by Jordan Belson, Bruce Conner, John Whitney, and others, plus a 1967 documentary about San Francisco’s blossoming hippie scene.

  • Sundays and Wednesdays

    Guided Tour: Hippie Modernism (March)

    Guided exhibition tour of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia led by UC Berkeley graduate students.

  • Saturday, February 18, 1—6PM

    Hippie Modernism Home Movie & Family Album Day

    Bring your 1960s and 1970s home movies, photos, flyers, and other print ephemera to BAMPFA for this  Hippie Modernism–themed “show and tell."

  • Friday, February 17, 6—8 PM

    Analog Light Show Workshop

    Come play with old overhead projectors, colored transparencies, prisms, mirrors, and more at this “light jam” with guest artist Jeff Manson. With special guest DJ.

  • Sundays and Wednesdays

    Guided Tour: Hippie Modernism (Feb)

    Guided exhibition tour of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia led by UC Berkeley graduate students.

  • Saturday, February 11, 1 PM

    Hippie Modernism Forum: Counterculture / Cyberculture

    The first of four Hippie Modernism forums exploring the contemporary relevance of the Bay Area hippie legacy. With guests Lee Felsenstein, Fred Turner, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and moderator Greg Niemeyer.

  • Saturday, February 11, 11:30 AM—1 PM & 1—2:30 PM

    Family Fare: Fabric Collage

    Following a tour of fabric artworks on view in Hippie Modernism, create collages with artist Jennie Lennick using upcycled fabrics. For kids 6–12 and their families.

    Ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Wednesday, February 8, 1:30 PM

    Gallery Talk with Curator Greg Castillo

    Guest curator Greg Castillo introduces the themes of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia and talks about some of the works on view in the exhibition.

  • Tuesday, February 7, 7–10 PM

    Hippie Modernism Public Preview

    Free public preview of Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia featuring modular synth instruments from Oakland’s Vintage Synthesizer Museum.

    Admission free

Past Films