ARTISTIC EVENTS OF THE 2ND

PERIOD
1968 1989
1970: THE BEATLES BREAKUP

The break-up of the Beatles, one of

the most popular and influential
musical groups in history, has
become almost as much of a legend
as the band itself or the music they
created while together. The Beatles
were active from their formation in
1960 to the disintegration of the group
in 1970.
The break-up itself was a cumulative
process throughout 1968 to 1970,
marked by rumors of a split and
ambiguous comments by the Beatles
themselves regarding the future of the
group. Although in September 1969
John Lennon privately informed the
other Beatles that he was leaving the group, there was no public
acknowledgement of the break-up until Paul McCartney announced on 10
April 1970 he was quitting the Beatles.
There were sporadic collaborative recording efforts among the band members
although all four Beatles never simultaneously collaborated as a recording or
performing group again.

1974: THE FOUNDATION JOAN MIR

The Fundacin Joan Mir in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architect Jos
Luis Sert (19021983), is completed.
In 2002, the building receives the American Institute of Architects 25-Year
Award for buildings of high-quality design that have stood for between 25 and

35 years. The building blends modernist and Mediterranean vernacular

elements.
1974: BARYSHNIKOV DEFECTION TO THE U.S.A

Mikhail Baryshnikov, nicknamed "Misha",

was born in Latvia in 1948. He was a
solo dancer with Leningrads Kirov
Ballet, a Soviet celebrity and a beloved
part of his nation. Unfortunately, the
feelings weren't mutual at the time.
He defected from the Soviet Union to the
United States in June1974 while on tour
in Toronto, Canada, in hopes of having a
better opportunity to express himself creatively. Soon thereafter he began a
series of highly successful appearances before North American audiences.
As a dancer, his great physical prowess and unsurpassed leaping ability
enabled him to perform the most difficult combinations of steps with
remarkable elegance of line. Hhe is often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and
Rudolf Nureyev, as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history.
Baryshnikov worked with the American Ballet Theatre until 1978 before
becoming its artistic director in the '80s.

1975: GIORGIO ARMANI

Giorgio Armani (born 1934), designer of a successful line of mens clothing in
1974, establishes a popular line for women characterized by tailoring and
fabrics based on mens suits and other garments.
In 2000, Armani is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York.

1976: ECOS THEORY OF SEMIOTICS

Semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco publishes the A Theory of Semiotics,
an influential work that is his own translation and reworking of his 1968 book
La struttura assente.

In 1980, Eco publishes his internationally popular novel Il nome della rosa
(The Name of the Rose), which is set in a fourteenth century monaster. The
setting allows Eco to demonstrate his knowledge of medieval aesthetics.

1976: WOLF BIERMANN EXPULSION

Popular singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann is stripped of East German
citizenship and expelled from the country for his vocal advocacy of
democratization.
The event which gave an end to a period of relative optimism among cultural
workers in the GDR, sets off a flurry of protests, prompting a government
crackdown on more than a hundred dissident writers.

1976: THE BAGSVRD CHURCH

The Bagsvrd Church, near

Copenhagen, is designed by Jrn
Utzon, also the architect of the Sydney
Opera House (195773). The church
represents Utzons perpetuation of the
organicism associated with earlier
Scandinavian modernist architecture
and is considered to be a masterpiece
of contemporary church architecture,
especially its bright, naturally
illuminated interior and its ceiling
straddled with softly rounded vaulting

1976: THE LLOYDS BUILDING

Norman Foster designs the Lloyds Building, London, which embodies the
architects high-tech approach to modern architecture.
The building, sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building, is a leading
example of radical Bowellism architecture in which the services for the

building, such as ducts and lifts, are located on the exterior to maximize space
in the interior.

1976: SEX PISTOLS FIRST SINGLE

The Sex Pistols first single, Anarchy in the

U.K., launches the punk rock phenomenon.
Rejecting the commercialism and fake
sentimentality of early 70s pop music, the
punk rock sound is abrasive and dissonant,
the lyrics anti-romantic and often political.
The music, as well as the severe hairstyles
and bargain-bin fashions associated with
punk rockers, will influence U.S. youth.

1977: THE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU

The Centre Georges Pompidou, designed by architects Renzo Piano and
Richard Rogers, opens in Paris. The contemporary art museum, cultural
center and library, with its brightly painted externalized structure and
mechanical systems, stands out from its traditional neighborhood.

1977: CHARTER 77
Charter 77 circulates in Prague. Drafted by a group of dissidents including
Vclav Havel and Jan Patocka and signed by 240 intellectuals and activists,
the document demands the restoration of civil rights. Spreading the text of the
document was considered a political crime by the communist regime. Havel
and Patocka were arrested. Patocka died as a result of police abuse during
interrogation.

1977: THE MALAGUEIRA QUARTER HOUSING PROJECT

Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza designs the Malagueira Quarter Housing

Project at Evora. In recognition of this and other works, Siza is awarded the
Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1992.

1978: A FOREST OF DEMONSTRATING BOARDS

Hungarian Conceptualist Gyula Pauer (born 1941) creates A Forest of
Demonstrating Boards, an installation of 131 placards with slogans and
inscriptions, for a sculpture exhibition in Nagyatd. Authorities confiscate and
destroy the work.

1978: FASSBINDERS FILM THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN

The Marriage of Maria Braun, the first film in

German of the director Rainer Werner
Fassbinders postwar trilogy, premieres. The film,
constructed in the Hollywood tradition of
"women's pictures" presenting a woman
overcoming hardships, serves also as a parable
of the West Germany economic miracle
embodied in the character of Maria Braun. Her
story of manipulation and betrayal parallels
Germany's spectacular postwar economic
recovery in terms of its cost in human values. The
film was the first part of a trilogy centered on
women during the post-war "economic miracle"
which was completed with Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982).

1979: ITALO CALVINO

Novelist and short-story writer Italo Calvino (19231985) publishes Se una
notte dinverno un viaggiatore (If on a Winters Night a Traveler), which
consists of a series of novels that begin but never end. The work reflects
literary postmodernism but also Calvinos interest in techniques of storytelling
that run through his writings.

1979: NOBEL PRIZE TO ODYSSEUS ELYTIS

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1979

was awarded to the Greek poet
Odysseus Elytis "for his poetry,
which, against the background of
Greek tradition, depicts with
sensuous strength and intellectual
clear-sightedness modern man's
struggle for freedom and
creativeness".
Elytis was best known in Greece as the author of "Axion Esti" ("Worthy It Be"),
an epic poem described as a "Bible for the Greek people" by composer Mikis
Theodorakis, who set it to music.

1980: NOBEL PRIZE TO CZESLAW MILOSZ

Polish migr poet and literary critic Czeslaw Milosz (born 1911) receives the
Nobel Prize in literature.

1980: BOYCOTT THE VENICE BIENNALE

Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union boycott the Venice
Biennale when the director refuses to cancel an exhibit of Eastern European
and Soviet dissident art.

1988: WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown) a film written and directed by Pedro Almodvar was
released and became his first huge international success. The film is a
feminist light comedy that further established the Spanish director as a
"women's director" like George Cukor and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Inspired by Hollywood comedies of the 1950s, Women on the Verge of a

Nervous Breakdown became the stepping stone for Pedro Almodvar's later
work. This light comedy of rapid-fire dialogue and fast-paced action remains
one of Almodvars most accessible films