From our newsletter archives — Originally published June 1, 2023. New items added.
The counterculture that emerged in the United States in the 1960s had a strong impact not only on popular culture, but also on different branches of the fine arts. Thomas Crow’s new book The Artist in the Counterculture explores how these different currents interconnected in California from the 1960’s to the 1980’s.
In another sign of convergence, Alex and Allyson Grey, two longtime practitioners of psychedelic and spiritual art, have just now opened the impressive Entheon Sanctuary of Visionary Art in Wappinger Falls just a few miles north of Dia, a revered fine arts sanctuary in Beacon, NY.
Gallery 98’s specialization is in art ephemera connected with galleries and museums, but it is no surprise that many counterculture items have over the years slipped into our collections. For more items visit Gallery 98’s special Counterculture page.
Allen Ginsberg’s Howl Goes Mainstream
Howl: The Obscenity Trial that Started a Revolution; The Poem that Rocked a Generation, James Franco is Allen Ginsberg, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, publicity card, 2010. Size: 4 x 6 inches — Available
Allen Ginsberg’s (1926 – 1997) poem Howl (1955) helped spark the Beat Generation literary movement. The poem received more attention in 1959 when Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the publisher of Howl, was put on trial for distributing obscenity. This postcard promotes a 2010 film about the poem that features James Franco as Allen Ginsberg.
Gordon Ball (Photographer), Cadets at the Virginia Military Institute read Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, postcard, City Lights Books, 1996. Size: 6 x 4.5 inches — Available
Like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957), Howl would come to symbolize how the counterculture of the Beats became mainstream.
The East Village Other – Woodstock Music Festival – 1969
Today the Woodstock music festival has come to symbolize the music revolution and lifestyle changes associated with 1960s counterculture. Here The East Village Other, one of the first underground newspapers, spotlights this now legendary event. Surprisingly, despite the popularity of this issue, the artist who created the psychedelic map on it’s cover has not been identified.
See more issues of The East Village Other.
Bill Graham’s Fillmore – Psychedelic Rock Posters
Bill Graham launched a new era in music when he took over the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in 1966, and then opened the Fillmore East in New York in 1968. This postcard for a concert featuring The Blues Project, The Mothers and Canned Heat shows the new psychedelic art style that accompanied the new music. It is by Wes Wilson (1937 – 2020) one of the first artists hired by Graham and the inventor of the “psychedelic font” a lettering style influenced by Art Nouveau.
The Back Panther Party Newspaper – Emory Douglas
The Black Panther Party Magazine, Emory Douglas (cover design), Volume IV No 18, 1970. Size: 12 x 17.5 inches
The Black Panthers founded in Oakland California in 1966 initiated a more confrontational phase in the civil rights struggle. Their official publication was The Black Panther, a newspaper that remained in circulation from 1967 – 1980. The talented artist Emory Douglas was the paper’s graphic arts designer as well as the party’s Minister of Culture.
The Trial of the Chicago Seven – Bobby Seale — 1969
Jules Feiffer, Pictures at a Prosecution: Drawings and Texts from the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, Grove Press, 179-Page Publication, 1971. Size: 11 x 8.5 inches — Available
Counterculture politics reached new levels of intensity during the 1968 presidential election. Protests that disrupted the Democratic Convention in Chicago would result in a high-profile trial of Yippie Abbie Hoffman, SDS leader Tom Hayden, Black Panther Bobby Seale, and other demonstration leaders. Among those who covered the trial was the popular Village Voice cartoonist Jules Feiffer who temporarily transformed himself into a courtroom illustrator.
Bobby Seale, cover by unidentified artist, The East Village Other, November 5, 1969. Full newspaper. Size: 12 x 17 inches — Available
The image of Bobby Seale bound and gagged is the most enduring visual from the trial of the Chicago 8. Because he was continually disrupting the trial, the legal case against Seale was severed from that of the other defendants turning the Chicago 8 into the Chicago 7.
Tuli Kupferberg – Provacateur and Fug
Tuli Kupferberg, back cover of the 32-page newsprint publication Was It Good For You Too?, Vanity Press, 1983. Size: 11 x 8.25 inches — Available
Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010) is best known as a member of the Fugs, a lewd confrontational rock band founded by East Village poets in 1964. Over the next decades Kupferberg published numerous broadsides, books and articles incorporating the same off-color comedy and provocative politics that characterized the Fugs.
See more Tuli Kupferberg ephemera.
Alex Grey – Psychedelic Solution Gallery – Cannabis Cup
Alex Grey, Kissing (1983), Psychedelic Solution, Card, 1989. Size: 5 x 7 inches. — Available
Alex Grey, The 8th Annual Cannabis Cup, matchbook cover, High Times, 1996. Size: 2 x 2 inches. — Available
Alex Grey is one of a number of artists who continue to be influenced by the psychedelic art of the 1960s. The gallery Psychedelic Solution was founded in 1986 to promote this art style that was generally being ignored by other galleries. In 1996 Grey designed the poster for the 8th Annual Cannabis Cup, an award ceremony honoring the best marijuana strain, started by Steven Hager, the editor of the magazine High Times.
