Sixties Psychedelic Poster Art

The psychedelic movement of the sixties changed it all...
Social culture, music, fashion, design. All revolutionised under the hands of the hippies.

The full coloured, graphically mindblowing musicposters, with their blown up art nouveau like letters have become gorgeous symbols of their era, uniting music, design, time and place in graphics surpassing the "concertposter purpose"

Linked to hippie hotspots like the Berkeley Theatre and the famous Fillmore Auditorium, the Avalon Ballroom etc., psychedelic poster art is mostly associated with San Francisco. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors are just some of the names connected to the movement, symbolising a very special place & time.The American Poster Book (1988) is an overview of San Francisco's cultural and social milieu in the late sixties, devoting special coverage to five of the most influential poster artists: Mouse, Moscoso, Griffin, Conklin and Singer. Chronicled by Bill Graham, the designers and photographers themselves, this document is a true gem to the serious collector.

The Art of Rock (1987) is also a collector's dream. A compilation of over 1500 posters done by Paul Grushkin, the original artists and again Bill Graham. Grushkin's work is considered an authoritative source of rock poster art with its painstaking research of the Who, What, Where and When behind the pictures.

My favourites in the poster world are definitely Lee Conklin, Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson, probably in that order. In Lee Conklin's work I love the styled lettering and the Hieronymous Bosch' feel. He did many posters for the Fillmore and the famous concert promotor Bill Graham. I love these very much:





















More Lee Conklin

• Conklin @ POoTer's PSycheDelic ShAcK art gallery
• Conklin @ Wolfgang's Vault
• Lee Conklin's official website
  

Victor Moscoso's work has an extreme visual intensity and maximum optical effects. Vibrating edges, contrasting colors and deliberate psychedelic lettering are demanding elements in his style. Moscoso designed a series of posters for the Avalon Ballroom, the Matrix and Family Dog. Perhaps due to his academic training he's sometimes mentioned as one of the few who managed to bring psychedelic art to formal art museums and exhibitions.

His "flower pot" (family dog 86) is a great example of his ability to "formalize" some of the visual aspects of psychedelic art, e.g. the contrasting colors or the apparent movement of still forms.












Victor Moscoso - Family Dog 86 aka "Flower Pot"






Some other fine examples of Moscoso's work:























































More Victor Moscoso:

• Moscoso @ POoTer's PSycheDelic ShAcK art gallery
• Moscoso @ Wolfgang's Vault
• Victor Moscoso's official website

Wes Wilson is also part of the San Francisco "big ones". Creating the first Family Dog Posters and many many Fillmore posters for Bill Graham. I love his round flowing lines, psychedelic coloring and big lettering.



More Wes Wilson

• Wilson @ POoTer's PSycheDelic ShAcK art gallery
• Wilson @ Wolfgangs Vault
• Wes Wilson's website

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Major psychedelic gratitude goes out to the people @ POoter's PSycheDelic ShAcK & Wolgang's Vault !!! All images appear by courtesy of www.wolfgansvault.com.

More links:

• www.professorposter.com

• www.rockument.com

Finally: a little contemporary interpretation of a psychedelic "poster" ;)