Social context
1970s was a time of increased politicization in societies worldwide, identified with the upheavals of 1968 and its aftermaths. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Vietnam War and its international opposition, the inspiration of anti-colonial movements around the globe and widespread student unrests led to a comeback of left wing organizations, many of which were related to militant Maoism or Trotskyism. Alongside this growth of left-wing parties, new political projects developed: the Black Panther movement in the USA; the Women’s Liberation movement; the Gay Liberation Front.
According to Steve Edwards any artist who doesn't intent on “. . .‘sleeping through the deluge that threatens them’ could not help but be touched by this wave of unrest.”(Edwards, 2004)
Those artists who were well aware of the situation took a part in those struggles as artists or even as political subjects.
Another issue which was raised during those political unrests was related to art itself. This “. . . stems from the internal mutation of the minimalist and conceptual artists’ engagement with the framing conditions of art.
Once the space of the gallery had come to be understood as a central condition for making and experiencing art, it was only a short step to widen attention to consider the gallery as an institution. The radical Art Workers’ Coalition in New York, for instance, conducted a series of actions aimed at challenging the conservative presuppositions of the art establishment. As Graham put it: ‘The art world stinks; it is made up of people who collectively dig the shit; now seems to be the time to get the collective shit out of the system.’ The Coalition called for improvements to the economic standing of artists and challenged the gendered and ethnically exclusive policies of museums."(Edwards, 2004)