"Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia" to Open at Cranbrook Art Museum

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., June 3, 2016 - The acclaimed exhibition Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia travels to Cranbrook Art Museum this June, bringing an examination of the intersections of art, architecture and design with the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s.

The exhibition comes to Cranbrook from the Walker Art Center, where it enjoyed a successful run from October 24, 2015 through February 28, 2016. It was curated by Andrew Blauvelt, former Senior Curator of Research, Design and Publishing at the Walker who left that position to become Director of Cranbrook Art Museum in August of 2015. Cranbrook is the second of only three stops on the show’s national tour.

The exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum will run from June 18 through October 9, 2016.

A special “preview party” will be held on June 17 from 6-9pm. The event is free for ArtMembers, and $20 for non-members. Memberships and tickets may be purchased in advance via our website or at the door the evening of the event. On June 18 at 2pm, Blauvelt will deliver a lecture about the exhibition, which will be free with Museum admission.

Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia presents a broad range of art forms of the era, including: experimental furniture, alternative living structures, immersive and participatory media environments, alternative publishing, and experimental film and video. Expanding conventional art history of the period, the exhibition explores one of the most vibrant and inventive periods of the not-too-distant past, one that continues to exert tremendous influence within today’s culture.

For more information, visit the Museum's website at cranbrookartmuseum.org.

Image credit: Haus-Rucker-Co, Environment Transformer/Flyhead Helmet, 1968, Archive Zamp Kelp; Photo © Haus-Rucker-Co, Gerald Zugmann.