Mai ’68 French revolutionary and general strike posters

The May 1968 (Mai ’68) social and cultural revolution in France generated a distinctive collection of posters produced by students associated with various Paris-based university community workshops known as Ateliers Populaire. These ephemeral items were in the form of graphically simple, primarily monotone, silkscreen posters. As an expression of the prevailing counterculture, they represented the important role of the fine arts in expressing to the wider public, and supporting, the concerns and desires of young people involved in the widespread protests which sought to curtail restriction of individual freedom of expression on university campuses, and support the actions of workers in their own struggle for improved conditions of employment.