Around 1968 there was worldwide social change, and it gave street art and graffiti their first major impetus. Although people's individual motives were various, the aim of the protest movement of 1968 was to fight for more civil rights, more democracy and more social justice, breaking with fossilized social structures and outdated values and moral standards. In many countries, including France, there were demonstrations, and in West Germany the student movement began to roll. Many workers joined the student protests in May 1968 at the Université de Paris. That led to a general strike throughout France.

Alongside new concepts of what art meant and how it was to be defined, new materials emerged now too: silk screen prints, marker pens, spray cans and stencils altered the image of street art and graffiti. Now it was possible to create works much faster. In the long term, the 1968 revolt brought about cultural, political and economic reforms. With their simple graphics and succinct slogans (shown here in two photographs), the hundreds of different political posters from May and June 1968 were an important basis for later posters and street art in Europe. The 'situationist' group, a small artistic experimental movement, was characteristic of 60s France and might be said to have anticipated many of the ideas and slogans of 1968, for example Ne travaillez jamais ('Never Work'). Variously, the decade after 1968 also brought illegal, activist conceptual art on to the street. Mostly, the artists worked there anonymously, conveying political messages. Their aim was to democratize art.