1960s
Pop art and op art both had a firm footing in the 1960s. Artists such as Andy Warhol and David Hockney with their pop art references to mass culture (soup cans, comic strips, images of icons like Marilyn Monroe) crossed over into interiors, and on to murals, wallpaper and posters. Similarly, op art with its use of pattern and colour to simulate movement found its way on to everything from furniture to wallpaper. Artists such as Bridget Riley, who works predominantly in black and white, became the vogue. Whether you choose the hippy ethnic look or plastic space age, it will be far out.

Style
plastic and PVC
disposable, throwaway
multi-purpose furniture
low-level
revivalist
fun, witty

Influences
art nouveau - the whiplash lines and stylised flower shapes were revived in the 1960s and metamorphosed into psychedelia
space age - capsule and pod-shaped furniture
travel - ornaments, rugs and anything brought back from hippy pilgrimages to India and especially Morocco
cinema - the line between fantasy and reality is blurred as rooms were based on film sets; scenes from films such as Help! and Barbarella were recreated in magazines like House and Garden, showing readers how to get the look