Linda Lomahaftewa, “Untitled Woman’s Faces” (c. Sixties), oil on canvas (picture Lisa Yin Zhang/Hyperallergic)
“’White Rabbit?’ That’s such an obvious Jefferson Airplane choice! I would have picked ‘Two Heads.’” These have been my first ideas once I checked out the playlist for Sixties Surreal, a brand new exhibition on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork.
Should you haven’t encountered an exhibition playlist but, it’s just like these mixtapes a few of us made in highschool: rigorously curated, self-aware, and designed to seize a temper. In truth, I’m prepared to guess that any curator who’s created a playlist was as soon as a youngster with discerning style in vinyl information and a few mixtape expertise.
Sixties Surreal, which opens to the general public on September 24, spans 1958 to 1972 — a time wherein historical past is inextricable from its soundtrack; whether or not you have been there or not, it’s exhausting to think about the ’60s with out music. The present’s central query — what if Surrealism, somewhat than Cubism, had formed postwar American artwork? — factors to a latent pressure in artwork wherein unconscious, psychosexual, and emotional content material predominated over kind. If Sixties Pop Artwork appears to privilege floor enchantment, loads of the period’s music delved into the depths of the psyche.
Together with the ever-present “White Rabbit,” the playlist, embedded beneath, options a world mixture of pop, psychedelia, R&B, and rock — together with The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Isaac Hayes, and The Rolling Stones — together with a number of avant-garde artists (i.e., Steve Reich, Solar Ra, Frank Zappa) and a strong collection of jazz, corresponding to Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone, and Charles Mingus. (The songs might be accessed on Spotify, however they aren’t taking part in within the present, so come ready together with your cellphone and headphones if you wish to pay attention when you wander.)
The exhibition’s co-organizer and Whitney Curator of Drawings and Prints Dan Nadel, who developed the observe listing with Affiliate Curator Laura Phipps, spoke with Hyperallergic concerning the idea of the playlist and the method of making it. In fact, there’ll at all times be a music snob to choose it aside, however that’s a part of the enjoyable. We are able to all be impressed to make our personal playlists — you will discover a number of of my very own ’60s favorites on the finish of this text.
Hyperallergic: For readers who’ve by no means encountered a playlist for an exhibition, are you able to speak about what they’re and why a present would have one?
Dan Nadel: I suppose a playlist might be any variety of issues: a soundtrack for viewing, a parallel exhibition, a immediate for fascinated with the concepts in a present, or only a enjoyable dance occasion to take with you. There’s a sensible purpose for a playlist — it gives one other layer, like a catalog, to the exhibition expertise.
Set up view of Sixties Surreal on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork (picture Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
H: Why have a playlist for this explicit present?
DN: Music got here on and off the guidelines so many instances as we struggled to discover a stability between artists in dialog with one another in numerous methods and the fabric that swirled round them, like movie, music, and poetry. The playlist allowed us to think about the soundtrack of the artists within the present, usually talking, in addition to, broadly, think about a soundtrack of the time itself — a 14-year span that so many individuals fondly affiliate with music.
H: What was the method of developing with it?
DN: I began by remembering musicians that numerous artists had talked about to us all alongside the way in which, or, within the case of Karl Wirsum, made work instantly about. Then I expanded out by fascinated with how, say, jazz modified from 1958 to 1972 (an infinite quantity!), and likewise rock, however then additionally started fascinated with totally different radio stations in cities throughout the nation — what would possibly’ve been on the radio in Houston, Chicago, Mill Valley, and so on. Then it was simply mixing all of it collectively to create one thing that would by no means have existed as a consequence of style, location, and time constraints — one thing that feels considerably like our present!
Set up view of Sixties Surreal on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork (picture Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
H: Are there any songs that you simply have been tempted to incorporate however didn’t for any purpose (e.g., too obscure)?
DN: The great thing about a digital playlist is that the whole lot can movement in. It’s a uncommon medium that may deal with limitless intrusions.
H: Are you able to see the playlist turning into a extra frequent function in reveals? Possibly even interactive sooner or later?
DN: I don’t know — I believe it will depend on the present. I like artwork in silence, personally, however I additionally love providing one thing for individuals to take heed to at house. So … I suppose it will depend on the urge for food of the viewers and establishments.
H: Do you’ve any favourite tracks on this one?
DN: “All the Tired Horses” by Bob Dylan will get me each time!
Bob Dylan poster by Milton Glaser (not within the exhibition), created for Dylan’s 1967 Best Hits album (picture supply: Flickr)
Sixties Surreal is on view on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork from September 24–January 19, 2026.
The next are my very own playlist solutions, primarily based on the standards that the songs date from 1958 by way of 1972 and I like them: Bert Jansch, “Running From Home” (1965); The Unimaginable String Band, “The Mad Hatter’s Song” (1967); Pink Floyd, “Remember a Day” (1968); Fairport Conference, “She Moves Through the Fair” (1969); Nick Drake, “River Man” (1969); The Velvet Underground, “Jesus” (1969); Amon Düül II, “Sandoz in the Rain” (1970); The Stooges, “T.V. Eye” (1970); Syd Barrett, “Octopus” (1970); Timber, “Glasgerion” (1970); Alice Cooper, “Be My Lover” (1971); Black Sabbath, “Into the Void” (1971); Marc Jonson, “Return to Relief” (1972); Roxy Music, “Ladytron” (1972); T. Rex, “The Slider” (1972); Redd Kross, 1984 cowl of Rolling Stones’ 1967 music “Citadel.”
