Not currently on display at the V&A

Bill Graham Presents

Poster
1970 (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 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 creator of this poster, David Singer, was an untrained artist doing odd jobs for graphic design companies around San Francisco. He had been interested in collage from an early age, taking inspiration from the surrealism of Max Ernst and Magritte, combining this with the counter-culture of the 1960s. After showing several pieces to Bill Graham, he was hired to produce 12 posters, which Graham liked instantly, as the lettering was legible, a departure from the previous poster art of the Fillmore. Singer worked for Graham right up until the closure of the Fillmore in 1971, for which he created the final design; he was reaching his zenith, adapting Art Deco and Art Nouveau lettering, using collage and freehand drawing to create distinctive graphics, when the venue shut in the summer of 1971.

This gig featured a performance by the Steve Miller Blues band, who often played the Fillmore after moving to San Francisco in 1965 for the psychedelic scene in the early days of their career. They were supported by Bo Diddley, a musician known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from blues music to rock and roll, introducing more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalogue of songs.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBill Graham Presents (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithography on index paper.
Brief description
Poster advertising Steve Miller Band, Bo Diddley and Crow, performing July 16th to 19th, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco.
Physical description
Poster advertising Steve Miller Band, Bo Diddley and Crow, performing July 16th to 19th, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco. White background with blue, white and yellow illustration and red typography.
Dimensions
  • Height: 53.4cm
  • Width: 35.6cm
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 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 creator of this poster, David Singer, was an untrained artist doing odd jobs for graphic design companies around San Francisco. He had been interested in collage from an early age, taking inspiration from the surrealism of Max Ernst and Magritte, combining this with the counter-culture of the 1960s. After showing several pieces to Bill Graham, he was hired to produce 12 posters, which Graham liked instantly, as the lettering was legible, a departure from the previous poster art of the Fillmore. Singer worked for Graham right up until the closure of the Fillmore in 1971, for which he created the final design; he was reaching his zenith, adapting Art Deco and Art Nouveau lettering, using collage and freehand drawing to create distinctive graphics, when the venue shut in the summer of 1971.

This gig featured a performance by the Steve Miller Blues band, who often played the Fillmore after moving to San Francisco in 1965 for the psychedelic scene in the early days of their career. They were supported by Bo Diddley, a musician known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from blues music to rock and roll, introducing more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalogue of songs.
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 243 - Bill Graham's numbering system
Collection
Accession number
S.708-2010

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Record createdNovember 3, 2010
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