ARTISTIC EVENTS OF THE 2 ND 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 MIRÓ

The “Fundación Joan Miró” in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architect José Luis Sert (1902–1983), 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 Leningrad’s 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 men’s clothing in 1974, establishes a popular line for women characterized by tailoring and fabrics based on men’s suits and other garments.

In 2000, Armani is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

1976: ECO’S “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 BAGSVÆRD CHURCH

The Bagsværd Church, near Copenhagen, is designed by Jørn Utzon, also the architect of the Sydney Opera House (1957–73). The church represents Utzon’s 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 architect’s “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 Václav 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 Nagyatád. Authorities confiscate and destroy the work.

1978: FASSBINDER’S FILM “THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN”

“The Marriage of Maria Braun”, the first film in German of the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 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 (1923–1985) publishes ”Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore” (If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler), which consists of a series of novels that begin but never end. The work reflects literary postmodernism but also Calvino’s 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 émigré 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 Almodóvar 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 Almodóvar's later work. This light comedy of rapid-fire dialogue and fast-paced action remains one of Almodóvar’s most accessible films