May 68
- Artist: Vivan Sundaram
- Date: 1968
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: frame: 1874 x 1783 x 67 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is “May 68” by Vivan Sundaram. Painted in 1968, the work is an oil on canvas that channels the energy of the Paris student protests of May 1968. Sundaram, an Indian artist who had just arrived in London two years earlier, was steeped in British pop – the bold colors of David Hockney and the conceptual punch of Richard Hamilton – and guided by his American tutor R.B. Kitaj. In this piece he takes those pop sensibilities and marries them to the political. A police helmet, a flame‑gun, barricades and a lone figure behind a tree all appear in a flattened, almost montage‑like arrangement. The horizontal bands of colour ripple like city streets, while vertical stripes suggest barricades. The painting feels both celebratory and tense, a snapshot of an era when ordinary objects became symbols of resistance.
See it in person
May 68 is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
