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'Heads'

1 portrait of Leslie Smith

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© Peter Gidal

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'Heads'

by Peter Gidal
16mm silent, black and white film, 1969
Transferred from National Portrait Gallery Reference Collection, 2007
Primary Collection
NPG 6827

Artistback to top

  • Peter Gidal (1946-), Artist and film-maker. Artist or producer of 1 portrait.

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Events of 1969back to top

Current affairs

The Open University is established, based on the vision of Michael Young. Its aims were to offer the chance to study for higher education qualifications on a part time and distance learning basis, giving people who were unable to attend a traditional university because of family, work commitments or disability the opportunity to achieve university degrees.

Art and science

The comedy sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus is first broadcast. The Pythons performed surreal sketches that reinvented the comedy tradition, eschewing punch lines for a stream-of-consciousness structure and incongruous authorial interventions: 'and now for something completely different'.
Kenneth Tynan's Oh! Calcutta amuses and shocks audiences with full nudity on stage, taking advantage of the recent end to censorship laws.

International

Neil Armstrong takes 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' when he becomes the first man on the moon.
Concorde makes its first supersonic flight. The plane was designed, developed and manufactured by a joint treaty between the French and English governments.

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