High Art: A History of the Psychedelic Poster
No matter how high the hippies got, most had to come back to earth, cut their hair, get jobs, and "sell out" their counterculture. High Art flashes back to when love and LSD were free and psychedelic posters were not bankable art. The boldly and beautifully colored reproductions do the mystic and merry tripper's visions justice; however, after an insightful introduction to the social and political climate of the 1960s and the poster artists' influences, the written content of this book wavers. For the profiles of American poster artists and the rock venues and promoters that employed them, the authors reprinted deep but sometimes outdated pieces from the 1976 exhibition catalog San Francisco Rock Poster Art by historian Walter Medeiros. Their original coverage of the British scene with direct quotes from the artists is more engaging. Why psychedelic art blacked out in the 1980s and soared in popularity in the mid- and late 1990s is not explored either. Recommended where demand warrants.AHeather McCormack, "Library Journal"Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.