Bill Graham Presents
Poster
1967 (designed)
1967 (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, Bonnie MacLean, had no formal training, but had attended life drawing classes at night whilst working in New York City. After moving to San Francisco she became Bill Graham's secretary at the office where he worked prior to opening the Fillmore. They fell in love and were married in 1968. As she worked on her creativity, drawing the current band line-ups and upcoming attractions on the Fillmore's chalkboards, the previous poster artist, Wes Wilson, abruptly left. Graham gave MacLean an easel and art supplies that Christmas and asked her to carry on the poster designs. She freely experimented with diverse cultural imagery, from Indigenous American totems to hipsters in Nehru jackets. The faces of the people she painted wore trance-like stares and serene gazes, evoking the detached spirituality of the sixties.
This gig featured The Electric Flag, a band brought together to create the soundtrack to the Peter Fonda/Roger Corman LSD film, The Trip. Also on the bill was 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.
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, Bonnie MacLean, had no formal training, but had attended life drawing classes at night whilst working in New York City. After moving to San Francisco she became Bill Graham's secretary at the office where he worked prior to opening the Fillmore. They fell in love and were married in 1968. As she worked on her creativity, drawing the current band line-ups and upcoming attractions on the Fillmore's chalkboards, the previous poster artist, Wes Wilson, abruptly left. Graham gave MacLean an easel and art supplies that Christmas and asked her to carry on the poster designs. She freely experimented with diverse cultural imagery, from Indigenous American totems to hipsters in Nehru jackets. The faces of the people she painted wore trance-like stares and serene gazes, evoking the detached spirituality of the sixties.
This gig featured The Electric Flag, a band brought together to create the soundtrack to the Peter Fonda/Roger Corman LSD film, The Trip. Also on the bill was 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.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Bill Graham Presents (series title) |
| Materials and techniques | Lithography on card stock |
| Brief description | Poster advertising Electric Flag American Music Band, Moby Grape and Steve Miller Blues Band at Fillmore West, San Francisco, 1967. |
| Physical description | Poster advertising Electric Flag American Music Band, Moby Grape and Steve Miller Blues Band at Fillmore West, San Francisco, 1967. Red background with black and brown illustration and text, and central black and brown photograph of the main band. |
| Dimensions |
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| 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, Bonnie MacLean, had no formal training, but had attended life drawing classes at night whilst working in New York City. After moving to San Francisco she became Bill Graham's secretary at the office where he worked prior to opening the Fillmore. They fell in love and were married in 1968. As she worked on her creativity, drawing the current band line-ups and upcoming attractions on the Fillmore's chalkboards, the previous poster artist, Wes Wilson, abruptly left. Graham gave MacLean an easel and art supplies that Christmas and asked her to carry on the poster designs. She freely experimented with diverse cultural imagery, from Indigenous American totems to hipsters in Nehru jackets. The faces of the people she painted wore trance-like stares and serene gazes, evoking the detached spirituality of the sixties. This gig featured The Electric Flag, a band brought together to create the soundtrack to the Peter Fonda/Roger Corman LSD film, The Trip. Also on the bill was 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. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | BG 77 - Bill Graham's numbering system |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.1273-2010 |
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| Record created | September 30, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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