Barry Flanagan at Tate Britain

See how the May 68 protests impacted on artists in London, inspiring agit-prop posters and new forms of art.

The protests of May 1968 – in Paris and around the world – were a watershed in postwar social and political history.

This display shows the impact these movements had on artists in London. It includes agit-prop posters by the Camden Poster Workshop, who moved their studio into the London School of Economics during the student occupation in October. A film by Patricia Holland looks at the occupation of Hornsey School of Art by its students, while archive material delves deeper into the activities of these artists and the wider impact of May 68.

The display also includes work by radical artists including Barry Flanagan, Richard Long, Joseph Beuys and Mario Merz who were included in the landmark exhibition When Attitudes Become Form at London’s ICA in 1969. Just as the student protestors were questioning the political, social and cultural establishment, these artists were questioning the nature of the art object.