Not currently on display at the V&A

Bill Graham Presents

Poster
1968 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Fillmore in San Francisco is a historic music venue, named after its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard. Known as the Fillmore Auditorium in the mid-1960s, concert promoter Bill Graham began a series of concerts featuring bands from the counterculture of the time. In 1968, due to his spiralling success, he moved to a larger venue which he named Fillmore West. Having closed in 1971, and after extensive repair work to fix earthquake damage, Graham's venue was revived when Live Nation reopened the original Fillmore venue in 1994.

San Francisco in the mid-1960s was the hub of the LSD and Hippie scene and the cultural and political rebellion of 1967's Summer of Love. The resulting influence of these factors on the artists of the area created the fantastic psychedelic posters of the Fillmore. Art dealer Jacaeber Kastor said of the posters, "They couldn't just tell you the information about the show. They had to tell you what kind of people you might meet, what kind of far out trip you might have or perhaps even reveal the mysteries of the universe. Wow. Quantum mechanics, visual mudwrestling, Acid test pop quiz on a phone pole!"

The artist of this poster, Lee Conklin, was a security guard in Los Angeles when he began to notice Wes Wilson's Fillmore poster art appearing in magazines such as Time, at which point he decided to move to San Francisco in order to pursue his dream of making a living from his artistic work. He approached Graham and was commissioned there and then, producing a large body of work over the years of 1968 and 1969. His designs featured birds, cats, lions and dogs and particularly human figures or faces, hands and other limbs, often intertwined and growing out of each other. He was dedicated to hand drawing, and put to paper the most literal psychedelic inspiration of any of the Fillmore artists. "I made it my mission to translate my psychedelic experience onto paper. The afterglow was always the most creative time for me."

This poster advertised a gig by Super Session, a band made up of the producer and musician Al Kooper, and guitarist Mike Bloomfield of Electric Flag. They had come together to make an album of jams in a couple of days of studio time that Al Kooper had booked, as they were both in the process of leaving their respective bands. After the album became a gold sales success, the pair played several gigs together, with members of other bands that had worked on the record making appearances.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBill Graham Presents (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithography on card stock
Brief description
Poster advertising Super Session featuring Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Friends, It's a Beautiful Day and Loading Zone performing September 26-28 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco.
Physical description
Poster advertising Super Session featuring Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Friends, It's a Beautiful Day and Loading Zone performing September 26-28 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco. Pink border featuring surrealist illustration printed in pale yellow, purple and veridian.
Dimensions
  • Height: 53cm
  • Width: 35.8cm
Style
Copy number
First Edition
Credit line
Given by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Object history
Transferred as part of a collection from the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, in 1985.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
The Fillmore in San Francisco is a historic music venue, named after its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard. Known as the Fillmore Auditorium in the mid-1960s, concert promoter Bill Graham began a series of concerts featuring bands from the counterculture of the time. In 1968, due to his spiralling success, he moved to a larger venue which he named Fillmore West. Having closed in 1971, and after extensive repair work to fix earthquake damage, Graham's venue was revived when Live Nation reopened the original Fillmore venue in 1994.

San Francisco in the mid-1960s was the hub of the LSD and Hippie scene and the cultural and political rebellion of 1967's Summer of Love. The resulting influence of these factors on the artists of the area created the fantastic psychedelic posters of the Fillmore. Art dealer Jacaeber Kastor said of the posters, "They couldn't just tell you the information about the show. They had to tell you what kind of people you might meet, what kind of far out trip you might have or perhaps even reveal the mysteries of the universe. Wow. Quantum mechanics, visual mudwrestling, Acid test pop quiz on a phone pole!"

The artist of this poster, Lee Conklin, was a security guard in Los Angeles when he began to notice Wes Wilson's Fillmore poster art appearing in magazines such as Time, at which point he decided to move to San Francisco in order to pursue his dream of making a living from his artistic work. He approached Graham and was commissioned there and then, producing a large body of work over the years of 1968 and 1969. His designs featured birds, cats, lions and dogs and particularly human figures or faces, hands and other limbs, often intertwined and growing out of each other. He was dedicated to hand drawing, and put to paper the most literal psychedelic inspiration of any of the Fillmore artists. "I made it my mission to translate my psychedelic experience onto paper. The afterglow was always the most creative time for me."

This poster advertised a gig by Super Session, a band made up of the producer and musician Al Kooper, and guitarist Mike Bloomfield of Electric Flag. They had come together to make an album of jams in a couple of days of studio time that Al Kooper had booked, as they were both in the process of leaving their respective bands. After the album became a gold sales success, the pair played several gigs together, with members of other bands that had worked on the record making appearances.
Bibliographic references
  • Lemke, Gayle The Art of the Fillmore 1966-71, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1999
  • Poster Collecting. Fillmore Poster. 06 August 2010.
Other number
BG 138 - Bill Graham's numbering system
Collection
Accession number
S.760-2010

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Record createdOctober 4, 2010
Record URL
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