“All This Repeats”: Wild Plakken and The Neo-Avant-Garde

When describing its practice in 1979, the Dutch graphic design collective Wild Plakken (1977–1996) made a claim to situate itself within a historical lineage of political, avant-garde graphic design in the Netherlands. Outlining the visual and political context in which it was working, the collective referenced its own connection to the “progressive ideas” of the 1920s and 30s, and suggested that the themes of the inter-war period could be seen to be repeating in the 1970s and 1980s. Taking this claim as a starting point, this talk will examine the ways in which Wild Plakken’s practice can be understood in relation to notions of the “neo-avant-garde” and — more broadly — as an attempt to recall the spirit of inter-war graphic design in order to reject, or challenge, the visual and political moment of the 1980s Netherlands.

Dr Alex J. Todd is a design historian and faculty member in the History of Art and Design department at Pratt Institute. Alex Received his MA from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and his PhD from the History of Art and Design programme at the University of Brighton, where his dissertation focused on the political practice of the Dutch graphic design collective Wild Plakken. Alex is also the Student Officer for the Design History Society and co-lead of the Design Activism strand of the Centre for Design History.