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 Yardbirds, a blues-based pop-rock group that featured the guitarists Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Although they'd had a string of hits in the 1960s, the group's popularity was waning by this point. They hadn't had a big hit since 1967, and they spent most of 1968 touring the United States. During this time, the band became more experimental, leading to a 'heavier' sound that would be the basis of Page's next band, Led Zeppelin.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBill Graham Presents (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Printed ink on paper
Brief description
Poster advertising Yardbirds, It's a Beautiful Day and Cecil Taylor performing May 23 to 25 1968 at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
Physical description
Black and white surrealist illustration surrounded by yellow bubbles with text in black, and blue sky, advertising Yardbirds, It's a Beautiful Day and Cecil Taylor performing May 23 to 25 1968 at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
Dimensions
  • Height: 53.8cm
  • Width: 35.6cm
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.
Subject 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 Yardbirds, a blues-based pop-rock group that featured the guitarists Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Although they'd had a string of hits in the 1960s, the group's popularity was waning by this point. They hadn't had a big hit since 1967, and they spent most of 1968 touring the United States. During this time, the band became more experimental, leading to a 'heavier' sound that would be the basis of Page's next band, Led Zeppelin.
Bibliographic references
  • Poster Collecting. Fillmore Poster. 06 August 2010.
  • Lemke, Gayle The Art of the Fillmore 1966-71, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1999
Other number
BG 121 - Bill Graham's numbering system
Collection
Accession number
S.755-2010

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Record createdAugust 5, 2010
Record URL
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