Santa Clara University

Although hippies and protest movements may be the first things that come to mind when thinking about the 1960s, there is more to the period than that, as the de Saisset Museum exhibition highlights in its introduction to the art of the period. Eye on the Sixties: Vision, Body, and Soul features selections from the collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. The companion show, Flashing Back, draws from the museum’s permanent collection.

“There are some wonderful examples of pop artists, but the exhibition also includes a broad range of work, all types of media, very different stylistic approaches,” says Karen Kienzle, de Saisset Museum assistant director for exhibition, education, and community outreach and coordinator of the show. “I’m hoping that visitors get a sense of the huge resurgence in fine art printmaking during the 1960s and the experimentation with new materials, particularly plastics. I think they will be surprised and will have their eyes opened to the amount and diversity of work produced during this period.”

Andrea Pappas, an SCU associate professor of art history and the exhibit’s curator, provided students in one of her art history classes the opportunity to get integrally involved in developing the show. The undergraduates wrote explanatory text accompanying the displays, as well as the content for the “Guide by Cell” auditory program, the “Explore with Me” student-docent program, which provides free interactive group tours, and the artists’ biographies for the exhibition catalogs.

“The problem with the 1960s is that there was so much going on, it’s difficult to try to create a snapshot,” Pappas says. “But one of the advantages of drawing from works from a single collection is that you get a snapshot as the collectors saw it.”

The show runs through March 20, and continues March 29–June 15.

For more information on the exhibit, visit www.scu.edu/desaisset. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is closed Monday. There is no charge for admission. Free tours are available to community groups.