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 appear 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 & 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 line-up featuring Moby Grape, a band known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music. The Jeff Beck Group also played; Beck was previously the guitarist with Yardbirds, and this incarnation of the group also featured Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood (now of The Rolling Stones) on guitar.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBill Graham Presents (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithography on card stock
Brief description
Poster advertising Big Brother and the Holding Company, Richie Havens and Illinois Speed Press, performing 16-18 July and Sly and the Family Stone, Jeff Beck Group and Siegal Schwall performing 19-21 July 1968 at Fillmore, San Francisco
Physical description
Poster advertising Moby Grape, Jeff Beck Group and Mint Tattoo, performing July 23 - 25 and Charles Lloyd Quartet, Hero, and James Cotton Blues Band performing July 26 to 28, 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco. Red background with blue text and illustrations in blue and green of intertwined lizards, making a border around the typography.
Dimensions
  • Height: 54cm
  • Width: 36cm
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 appear 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 & 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 line-up featuring Moby Grape, a band known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music. The Jeff Beck Group also played; Beck was previously the guitarist with Yardbirds, and this incarnation of the group also featured Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood (now of The Rolling Stones) on guitar.
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 130 - Bill Graham's numbering system
Collection
Accession number
S.1278-2010

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Record createdOctober 5, 2010
Record URL
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