Blazing new trails in commercial art is an unlikely business. Unlike fine art, those creating commercial works must walk a fine line to create aethetically interesting works of art while fullfilling the obligations of their benefactor’s need to communicate the value of the product or service. But, in the 1960’s there was a dreamy period in the San Francisco Bay Area that has long been heralded as a cultural turning point for America —if not the world. From poetry to politics to the venerable music scene, this is societal shift is hard to argue, but finally easy to see.
So, what is it about these static works of shocking color and movement that help sharpen lens on this era? Perhaps it is the staid gallery setting, the academic analysis of these free-spirited time-capsules. At once you know these should be in a Haight Victorian, but somehow it feels better to see this from afar. Even as a professionally trained college graduate in visual communications, it was this exhibit that put the period in focus for me.
Describing the brief period covered in the exibit as purley a flower-powered utopian window into the sixties would have been an easy target for the currators. Fortunately, they did not take the easy path, but tripped farther into the culture’s darker aspects without delving distractingly into the well-documented music scene. This is no easy feat as the posters themselves have everything to do with the music. Considering the posters were produced and sold as limited edition art pieces at the time of their creation tells us that the respect we feel for the genre is warranted. Not since Lautrec or Mucha have we seen commercial artists given the free-reign offered during this grand period. The rewards are as rich today as they were when the posters were released, though the shimmer may not be as brilliant in 2009, this not because the ink has faded away, it’s simply that viewing art in it’s context often demands a different state of mind. The collection is stunning and well worth the drive to the front range. Even under the summer glare of the refletive titanium tiles of the magnificent Denver Art Museum, attendies appear to come out of the woodwork.
The Denver Art Museum is currently hosting “The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the Sanfrancisco Bay Area, 1965-1971.” Denver Art Museum
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