'Revolution Evolution' Exhibition

The new Exhibition at the Bahr Gallery illustrates the evolution of the psychedelic rock poster design style as it first emerged from early 1966 to the middle of 1967. The psychedelic poster era lasted just four years, and while there were many epic, iconic posters produced in 1968-1969, most of the innovations and paths that later artists would follow were established in those first 18 months.

The Exhibition follows the work chronologically of Wes Wilson, considered the founder of the psychedelic poster movement, the team of Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley, and Victor Moscoso with his work for both The Family Dog and his own series of eye-blasting Neon Rose posters.

We highlight the unique characteristics of the psychedelic poster that emerged literally week by week on telephone poles, in store windows and on dorm room bulletin boards.

The three hallmarks of the psychedelic style were indecipherability, appropriation and use of images that had nothing to do with the product 'being sold,' and of course vibrant, bright and often clashing colors.

A final characteristic of the psychedelic poster revolution was that the posters were created on short deadlines as their role was to advertise next weeks’ concert. As Stanley Mouse noted, the posters were created, “in a furious moment” and as such, could not be labored over. In return, the artists got immediate feedback and a spirit of friendly competition existed as each artist tried to outdo his peers.

In addition to Mouse and Kelley, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin collaborated on 8 posters and all five would collaborate on commemorative posters in later years. This spirit of cooperation and mutual admiration was very different from the New York art scene where artists would carefully guard their work until it appeared in a Gallery. There was no opportunity to shelter ones’ ideas in San Francisco – the works would be plastered all over the City in a few days!