A snapshot of 1969
In this year at Warwick:
- The following buildings were opened on campus: Staff Housing and Laundrette, Physics, Maths Research Houses and the Graduate Studies Building.
Peter Midgley was born in Berlin in 1921 and named Peter Fleischmann. He grew up in an orphanage and attended the Berlin Art School. He escaped to England where he was interned as an enemy alien in the camp at Douglas, Isle of Man during the Second World War. From there, he was released into the care of two painters called Midgley who lived in Manchester. After the war, they encouraged him to train as an artist.
In 'Paper Maze' Peter Midgley ingeniously creates an abstract relief using folded newspaper. It possibly shows the influence of Kurt Schwitters, a pioneer of collage and the use of 'found' objects and materials, who taught Midgley when they were both interned on the Isle of Man.
And in the world:
- An estimated 500 million people watched as Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.
- More than half a million people gather for Woodstock.
- The Beatles give their last public performance, filming several tracks on the roof of Apple Records, London.
- The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 resulted in four co-winners, with 18 votes each, from Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France.
- The halfpenny ceased to be legal tender in the UK.
- Monty Python's Flying Circus first aired on BBC One.
- The Boeing 747 jumbo jet made its first passenger flight. It carried 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, Washington, to New York City.
Peter Midgley | Paper Maze | Folded newspaper | 910 x 921 mm | 1969
Rootes Residences and 3B sculpture. Photo taken in 1969.