Posters with the Mostest
If visuals were enabled around here, you'd be seeing a groovy '60s poster, or maybe even an afghan embossed with an image from the same era. There has long been a brisk market in vintage poster art from its San Francisco heyday, and both Wolfgang's Vault and RockPop Gallery offer plenty of it for sale. Originally issued as one-shot giveaways for shows at venues such as the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms, the best gig posters have appreciated immensely in value over the years, and first printings can now command tens of thousands of dollars. "The Art of the Fillmore: The Poster Series 1966-1971" is a copiously illustrated coffee-table-sized introduction to the method and madness behind this unique form of high commercial art.
The art of the rock poster didn't die with the '60s, of course. Artists such as Frank Kozik and Jim Pollack continue to do colorfully inventive work. But I was knocked out recently by a site selling gig posters by Julie McLaughlin among many, many other fairly underground and mostly young artists. McLaughln's work (which reminds me of beautiful old Golden Book covers) suggests that there's something really important going on musically and artistically in her Calgary, Canada, hometown. Rambling around the literally thousands of designers selling their (immensely affordable) work at Gigposters.com is definitely an eye opener. There's a huge, vibrant, and mostly unseen world of contemporary poster art out there deserving of wider exposure.
Comments
Mike Goldstein says:
Richard - thanks for the mention in your article. I have to tell you, though, that there are sites such as Wolfgang's, ArtRock, Optikrock, etc., that do a much better job of selling (and educating people about) concert posters than I do.
My gallery primarily promotes the works of the designers, illustrators and photographers who created the covers of many of our favorite LPs, CDs and DVDs. It is easy to say that, in many cases, these works of art were the most widely-reproduced works of art of the past 50 years (e.g., there have been over 35 million copies of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" sold, and each one was packed in a sleeve with Storm Thorgerson's iconic artwork on the front!).
If you (or any of your readers) are interested, I also write a regular article on "the making of" famous record covers. I interview the creator of the image and ask him or her to recount the circumstances and inspirations behind the images that were finally used. You can read these articles - called "Cover Stories" (a new one most every Friday) on my blog at
http://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/
Anyway, I enjoy reading your postings - keep up the good work - and let me know if you ever have any questions about "the art of the album cover".
Happy Holidays
Mike Goldstein, owner
RockPoP Gallery - Huntington, NY
12/06/07 05:45 PM