Art psychédélique

Deux affiches respectivement de Victor Moscoso et Wes Wilson, fers de lance de l'art psychédélique, illustrant les concerts du rock éponyme (Jefferson Airplane), à San Francisco entre 1966 et 1969, pour les deux principales salles de la ville : le Fillmore West et l'Avalon Ballroom. C'est l'ère de la beat generation, vibrant à l'unisson des voyages shamaniques de Carlos Castaneda (testant les effets du peyote : L'herbe du diable et la petite fumée) et des expériences lysergiques du professeur Timothy Leary.
J'ai retenu ces deux affiches parce qu'elles portent au point culminant cette science de l'Op Art, de la couleur flashy, des contrastes improbables, créant des troubles de la vision et accompagnant à merveille les troubles de la conscience recherchés par l'usage de drogues et autres substances psychotropes. Fruit d'un bricolage entre dessin, peinture, collages, solarisations et autres effets de chromie analogique qui avaient 40 ans d'avance sur les filtres numériques de Photoshop.

Leading proponents of the Psychedelic Art movement were San Francisco poster artists such as: Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse & Alton Kelley, and Wes Wilson. Their Psychedelic Rock concert posters were inspired by Art Nouveau, Victoriana, Dada, and Pop Art. Richly saturated colors in glaring contrast, elaborately ornate lettering, strongly symmetrical composition, collage elements, and bizarre iconography are all hallmarks of the San Francisco psychedelic poster art style. The style flourished from about 1966 - 1972. Their work was immediately influential to album cover art, and indeed all of the aforementioned artists also created album covers.

Psychedelic light-shows were a new art-form developed for rock concerts. Using oil and dye in an emulsion that was set between large convex lenses upon overhead projectors the lightshow artists created bubbling liquid visuals that pulsed in rhythm to the music. This was mixed with slideshows and film loops to create an improvisational motion picture art form to give visual representation to the improvisational jams of the rock bands and create a completely "trippy" atmosphere for the audience. The Brotherhood of Light were responsible for many of the light-shows in San Francisco psychedelic rock concerts.