Day by Day: 1968

Day by Day: 1968
Exhibition: January 11th – February 24th, 2018
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 11th, 6-8PM

Steven Kasher Gallery presents Day by Day: 1968, an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of that most turbulent year in 20th century history. The exhibition presents 366 vintage black and white news photographs from a private collection, one made on each day of 1968. The prints will be mounted in calendar format, one grid for each month. The dense juxtaposition and sequencing of the images tell stories that are tragic and comic, ironic and histrionic, utopic and dystopic, and so much more. A hardcover 237-page catalog illustrating every picture has been published in conjunction with the exhibition.

1968 was a year of seismic social and political struggle and change across the globe. It was understood then to be a historic year throughout the world, and it has remained a touchstone ever since. We see the fever pitch of the anti-Vietnam war movement and civil rights movements in the United States, the protests and counter-revolutions in Europe and devastating war and famine in Africa. We see elections stolen, societies on the brink, advertisements as myths, assassination and invasion as ideology, performers as heroes, and cultures in liberation.

Reflections of today’s world are unmistakable. “It is not an overstatement to say that the destiny of the entire human race depends on what is going on in America today. This is a staggering reality to the rest of the world; they must feel like passengers in a supersonic jetliner who are forced to watch helplessly while a passel of drunks, hypes, freaks, and madmen fight for the controls and the pilot's seat.”
– Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968

1968 was a year of triumphs and tragedies. We invite you to relive the highs and the lows through these photographs, which include:
January 6th: Chicago teachers prepare for strike
January 12th: Patty Duke in Valley of the Dolls
February 2nd: Viet Cong guerilla executed by police chief
February 9th: Elvis and Priscilla Presley with their newborn daughter, Lisa Marie
February 23rd: Dr. Timothy Leary leads protests at DOW Chemical
March 29th: McCarthy campaign workers sort contribution checks
March 29th: Contestants in Miss Secretary contest
April 4th: Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy with Martin Luther King, Jr. the day before his assassination
April 22nd: Flower Children are a part of Youth ‘68 to be shown on NBC
May 1st: Columbia students form a human barricade around the University
May 3rd: The new fashions of United Airlines stewardesses
May 22nd: View of Resurrection City camp on the Washington Mall for Poor People’s Campaign
May 31st: Over 200,000 workers demonstrate in Paris
June 4th: Senator Robert F. Kennedy on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel shortly after being shot
June 16th: Liberace performing as host on Showtime
June 26th: Bullet ridden window of Black Panther Party Headquarters after Huey Newton’s prison release
June 30th: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company perform live at Winterland
July 10th: Presidential hopeful Richard Nixon in Chicago
July 11th: Crab-stuffed eggs on a relish tray
August 22nd: Protestors of the invasion of Czechoslovakia
August 26th: Police stream into Chicago Amphitheater during the Democratic National Convention
September 28th: A member of East Village Hippie “Church of the Mystifying Elation” after a police raid
October 1st: Jerry Rubin, a peace protestor whose demonstration interrupted the Democratic National
Convention, is removed from his hearing at the House Committee on Un-American Activities
October 17th: Tommie C. Smith and John Carlos hold up black gloved fists in protest of racial inequality
at the medal ceremony of the Olympic Games in Mexico City
November 7th: Shirley Chisolm is the first African-American woman elected to Congress
December 31st: Earthrise as seen from Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, on Christmas Eve

The exhibition will be accompanied by a soundtrack of popular 1968 songs, from bubble-gum to anti-war
anthems, including:
Hey Jude by the Beatles
Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express
Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel
Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf
Hello, I Love You by the Doors
Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin
Jumpin’ Jack Flash by the Rolling Stones
Green Tambourine by the Lemon Pipers
Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Da Daa by Stevie Wonder
White Room by Cream
Spooky by Dusty Springfield
Judy in Disguise (With Glasses) by John Fred
Stoned Soul Picnic by the 5th Dimension
Mony Mony by Tommy James and the Shondells
Do You Know the Way to San Jose by Dionne Warwick
Fire by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Delilah by Tom Jones

Day by Day: 1968 will be on view January 11th-February 24th, 2018. Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 515
W. 26th St., New York, NY 10001. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM. For
inquiries, please contact Cassandra Johnson, 212 966 3978, cassandra@stevenkasher.com.