Psychedelic Posters
The 1960s were without doubt the most influential era for modern music. Psychedelic posters and art helped define a special period during that era.
With artists like the Rolling Stones and The Beatles gaining unprecedented popular appeal, the music produced during the ‘Swinging Sixties’ had a major impact on the decades that were to follow.
In amongst all this – drugs. Hallucinagens. Psychoactives. Stimulants. As musical experimentation flourished, so too did a unique kind of drug culture – one which prized the creative possibilities that drugs could allow for.
The term psychedelia arose to describe the sort of art that was created based on experiences produced by taking drugs.
In terms of visual art, there were common traits – extreme detail, wavy typography, a blurring of human forms with text.
Here are 11 posters that shed light on psychedelic art during the 1960s:
The Yardbirds and The Doors at the Fillmore Series - Bonnie MacLean 1967
Bonnie MacLean was one of psychedelia’s most noted artists. Her classic rock posters helped capture the magic of the music during this era – they also worked as entrancing works of art in and of themselves.
In this poster, which was used to promote gigs by The Yardbirds and The Doors, MacLean employs a typical psychedelic style, with the text billowing down the poster in an ornate, purposely-difficult-to-read way, alongside a woman looking placidly out at the viewer.
The peacock – which was a common motif in psychedelic posters – does exactly what peacocks are supposed to do; it demands your attention with its dazzling, ostentatious display.
The Yardbirds and The Doors at the Fillmore Series – Bonnie MacLean
Big Brother and the Holding Company – Victor Moscoso
Big Brother and the Holding Company - Victor Moscoso 1967
This poster, created by another famous psychedelia artist Victor Moscoso, was used to advertise a concert by Big Brother and the Holding Company.
The swirling fractals here – made up of bright, contrasting colours – are typical of psychedelic art. Artists like Moscoso wanted their posters to be as trippy as possible.
In a race to portray their works as counter-cultural and psychedelic, artists preferred surreal textual and visual forms, to something as ‘square’ (literally) as straightforwardly legible text.
Untitled (Otis Rush/Grateful Dead/Canned Heat) - Wes Wilson 1967
The magnificence of many of these psychedelic images is in how the artists capture the freedom of the era with their swirling, liberated colours and lines, all while managing to contain the poster’s information in an eye-catching way.
In Wes Wilson’s poster, a face gazes out to the left hand side (possible a concert-goer enjoying a gig), while the back of his head, where his brain would be, swirls outrageously (possibly a visual representation of the effects that music, or psychedelics, or both, have on the brain).
Untitled (Otis Rush/Grateful Dead/Canned Heat) – Wes Wilson
And Being In – at Volunteer Park (Seattle) Again in the Afternoon
And Being In - at Volunteer Park (Seattle) Again in the Afternoon - Gary Eagle (Unconfirmed)
While little is known about the context behind this poster, it was said to be the work of artist Gary Eagle, who was a pivotal part of Seattle’s psychedelic art scene.
This is an incredibly poignant poster – one that packs more stark emotions than many psychedelic posters do. Many people who participated in psychedelic culture in the 1960s glorified Native American life, which seemed to be more in touch with spirituality than modern-day American culture. Therefore, the presence of a Native American man here – donning 1960s peace symbols – feels entirely appropriate.
Toulouse Lautrec - Peter Max 1966
Peter Max created this lithograph poster of the Art Nouveau artist Toulouse-Lautrec, perhaps in tribute to the French artist’s own boundary-pushing efforts in the movements of his time.
The poster is quietly ingenious – look at how reserved and understated the depict of Toulouse-Lautrec is, with the psychedelic elements only coming through in his hat.
A perfect wedding of new and established art ideas.
Toulouse Lautrec – Peter Max
John Lennon – Richard Avedon
John Lennon - Richard Avedon 1967
The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein commissioned Richard Avedon to create works of art to capture the psychedelic direction of the band’s new album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
According to MoMA, Avedon created a poster for each of the four Beatles, and he overlaid the prints with Day-Glo colours, focusing on certain symbolic attributes of each member.
In John Lennon’s case, the symbolic attribute was, of course, his trippy eyeglasses. The posters has a massive impact and helped cement the band’s new psychedelic image.
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Miller Blues Band, The Daily Flash - Victor Moscoso 1967
1967 was the ‘Summer of Love’, so contextually, it felt like all the art during this year was geared towards reflecting a burgeoning of creativity, peace, and harmony.
In this concert poster, Moscoso envisions band names in harmony with an elaborate peacock (once again, Moscosco turns to the symbolic opportunities of the peacock).
It’s worth stressing just why the peacock image was so useful. In an age of kaleidoscopic colours and people dressing in the most evocative dresswear possible, many shared a kinship with the peacock.
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Miller Blues Band, The Daily Flash – Victor Moscoso
The Association, Along Comes Mary, Quicksilver Messenger Service – Wes Wilson
The Association, Along Comes Mary, Quicksilver Messenger Service - Wes Wilson 1966
Another one from Wes Wilson which showcases the delightful – and perplexing – beauty of the psychedelic era.
If the text is hard to read, and the fire image seems opaque in its symbolism, that was pretty much the whole point. Psychedelia valued hidden messages, swirling illustrations, and wavy imagery for the sake of wavy imagery.
Wilson wasn’t asking you to understand his creation, he was asking for your mind to work on a higher cerebral level…
The Chambers Brothers - Victor Moscoso 1967
The Chamber Brothers were a gospel band who switched to folk-rock and became popular during the folk-rock movement of the 1960s.
In this poster, a woman’s face stares out in blanched, neon colours, while the names, venues and dates come through her sunglasses.
It’s a lot more reserved than most psychedelic posters – and certainly more reserved than a lot of Moscoso’s work – but it’s beautifully affecting nonetheless.
Aquarium de Monaco – Jean Carlu
Martha and the Vandellas – Fillmore – Bonnie Maclean
Martha and the Vandellas - Fillmore - Bonnie Maclean 1967
In this poster, we’re presented with the image of three women’s faces (Martha and the Vandellas) in purple, against an olive green background, with elements of orange making up the composition.
If this appears less ‘psychedelic’ and more straightforward than other designs listed here, that might be down to the Motown Records influence (Martha and the Vandellas found major success on this record label).
Under Motown, Martha and the Vandellas were very much a soul group, meaning that it wouldn’t have made sense for them to go full psychedelia in their image.
The Byrds - Wes Wilson 1967
Perhaps the most intricate of all the posters listed here, and another example of Wes Wilson’s brilliance.
Look how textured this poster is – you feel like you could reach out and ruffle the feathers of this artfully crafted peacock.. It also features the same kind of dreamy, swirling shapes which secured Wilson’s fame as one of the most notable psychedelic artists.
The Byrds – Wes Wilson
Psychedelic art captured a new way of seeing the world
It’s incredible to think that most of the posters above were mere promotional tools for concerts which have long since been forgotten about.
These works helped visually capture what it meant to experiment with, or be influenced by, psychedelic drugs.
Almost 60 years after most of these artworks were created, they’re still being praised, mimicked, or examined.
