Neptune's Notion
Poster
1967 (made)
1967 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Born in Spain, Moscoso moved to the States early in his childhood, and went on to study art at Cooper Union in New York City and at Yale University. In 1959 he moved to the west coast of America, first attending the San Francisco Art Institute, and then, after graduation, taking up a post teaching lithography. During the late sixties, he produced concert posters for both Bill Graham’s Fillmore and for the Family Dog.
This poster for the Family Dog reproduces Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' (1780-1867) painting, Jupiter and Thetis, 1811. This reappropriation of other genres of art, in this case Neo-Classical, is characteristic of psychedelic poster art. What is interesting is that just as psychedelic poster artists side-stepped the International Poster Style favoured by Swiss poster artists such as Müller Brockman and Donald Brun, so they largely ignored Modernism. Preferring the popular or traditional, or the kitsch and the decadent, artists preferred to allude to Art Nouveau or the Vienna Secessionists, reworking 19th-century art, engravings and wood-cuts, and even popular cartoons and advertising, references to the artistic avant-garde, to Rothko, Pollock or Picasso are absent.
This poster for the Family Dog reproduces Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' (1780-1867) painting, Jupiter and Thetis, 1811. This reappropriation of other genres of art, in this case Neo-Classical, is characteristic of psychedelic poster art. What is interesting is that just as psychedelic poster artists side-stepped the International Poster Style favoured by Swiss poster artists such as Müller Brockman and Donald Brun, so they largely ignored Modernism. Preferring the popular or traditional, or the kitsch and the decadent, artists preferred to allude to Art Nouveau or the Vienna Secessionists, reworking 19th-century art, engravings and wood-cuts, and even popular cartoons and advertising, references to the artistic avant-garde, to Rothko, Pollock or Picasso are absent.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Colour offset lithograph |
| Brief description | 'Neptune's Notion' psychedelic poster No 49-1 by Victor Moscoso for The Family Dog, USA, 1967 |
| Physical description | 'Neptune's Notion', psychedelic poster advertising a dance concert featuring the late 1960s band, Moby Grape. The main image is taken from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' (1780-1867) 'Jupiter and Thetis, 1811. The image is printed in pink, blue and yellow, and the central figures are surrounded by fish and waves. One large fish extends from behind Neptune's head to Thetis' face, and the poster's title, 'Neptune's Notion' appears as a pattern on its scales. The event details are printed above the image in highly stylised blue letters on the yellow background. The text reads, 'Moby Grape Dance Concert, Avalon Ballroom. The Charlatans. Feb 24 Fri 25 Sat. Sutter at Vanness, San Francisco. Lights: Van Meter & Hillyard'. The Family Dog logo appears in the lower right-hand corner of the poster. |
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| Credit line | Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Born in Spain, Moscoso moved to the States early in his childhood, and went on to study art at Cooper Union in New York City and at Yale University. In 1959 he moved to the west coast of America, first attending the San Francisco Art Institute, and then, after graduation, taking up a post teaching lithography. During the late sixties, he produced concert posters for both Bill Graham’s Fillmore and for the Family Dog. This poster for the Family Dog reproduces Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' (1780-1867) painting, Jupiter and Thetis, 1811. This reappropriation of other genres of art, in this case Neo-Classical, is characteristic of psychedelic poster art. What is interesting is that just as psychedelic poster artists side-stepped the International Poster Style favoured by Swiss poster artists such as Müller Brockman and Donald Brun, so they largely ignored Modernism. Preferring the popular or traditional, or the kitsch and the decadent, artists preferred to allude to Art Nouveau or the Vienna Secessionists, reworking 19th-century art, engravings and wood-cuts, and even popular cartoons and advertising, references to the artistic avant-garde, to Rothko, Pollock or Picasso are absent. |
| Bibliographic reference | Christoph Grunberg, ed. Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era London: Tate, 2005. 239 p. : ill. (some col.) ISBN: 1854375954. |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.437-2004 |
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| Record created | February 2, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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