Take A Trip

A perfect convergence of the explosion of rock and roll music, psychedelic drugs, inspired typography, and promotional motivation created some of my favorite works of art... psychedelic rock posters. Thousands of individual designs were created and printed in limited quantities, starting originally in the San Francisco area (actually, the first was from Virginia City, Nevada) and soon enough the nation (and world) over.

The artistic freedom to create work with wild and impractical (for informational purposes) designs and lettering, combined with bright and contrasting colors and remarkable, possibly drug-fueled creativity created a bold visual cultural document. A beautiful mix of music, art, politics, and culture. Mostly music and art.

I own several books of psychedelic poster art, and without a doubt the masterpiece of the genre is The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk. This book covers rock and roll posters from the 1950 through the 1980s, with the lion's share going to 1960s psychedelic rock. Over 500 pages of poster that you know and love and ones you've never seen.

Each brightly colored page features anywhere from one large reproduction up to 12 small images. Thousands of posters, grouped by era, region, style, artist, band, or even specific events. I can, and have, stared at this book for hours.

Aside from being the most comprehensive and largest book of psychedelic rock art, it also features some of the best writings and text. Transcribed conversations with the musicians, artists, and promoters of the time give an amazing depth and insight to the works. Shorter texts give some context to the groups and venues of specific geographies. This book is pure gold!

This is the most complete visual and oral history of this art form that you will find. Released by Abbeville in 1987 and cost $85 then. Unfortunately, the book was abridged and re-released in a tiny 3.5 inch format in 1999, and one might purchase this micro (and worthless) edition accidental. That being said, it looks like Amazon has these listed for $45-55 New!
This book is about 14" tall and clocks in at almost 8 lbs. Far out.

Next up is the highly collectible High Art by Ted Owen.

Beautiful reproductions of some of the classic posters of the era, many in full page format. This book also has a good deal of work from British artists and venues (the author was a British music promoter of the era). The writings serve as a good introduction to the artists and their innovations.

This is a beautiful book but is long out-of-print and can cost upwards of $100. It's a little short, as there are just so many great posters I would have liked to have seen included, and I wish it was a hardcover edition. If you see it, get it, but don't break the bank.

The Art of the Fillmore 1966-1971 is another classic document of the entire run of Fillmore posters from Bill Graham's historic venues, with a forward from the legendary promoter himself.

All the posters from the Fillmore, Fillmore East, and other spots like the Berkeley Community Center and the Trips Festival are here. Plus handbills, tickets, and other ephemera from the venues. Printed large and in bold colors.

The posters are presented chronologically, with artist biographies and pictures appearing along with their images in the series as they arise. The most popular and well-known artists of the era all did work for Graham: Wes Wilson, Mouse & Kelley, and Rick Griffin (only two by Victor Moscoso), but some of my favorites are from under-recognized art pioneers like Bonnie MacLean, Lee Conklin, Randy Tuten, Greg Irons, and Mari Tepper.
The 1999 first edition is out of print now, and a 2nd edition (with Griffin cover, both from Thunder Mouth Press) from 2005 is apparently even more rare and expensive.

The final book of this mind expanding blog post is the more contemporary Art of Modern Rock, from Chronicle Books, 2004. Its similarity in size, shape, and page count make it an obviously intended companion to the original Art of Rock masterwork, while having no actual, publishing-biz relation to it, whatsoever. Does it match up, side-by-side on my bookshelf?

As you can likely see from the short-skirted devil girl on the cover, this book covers the wide-spanning yet often yawn-inducing medium of contemporary rock music poster art. It's the kind of book cover I'm embarrassed to have on my coffee table. Within there's plenty of coverage of Juxtapoz coverboys like Kozik, Coop, and Derek Hess, plus the countless derivative variations coming from others. It almost goes without saying the women artist are neglected throughout.

At almost 500 pages and 3-6 posters per page, there are a lot of artists, design companies, and styles on display. The artworks that are reproduced as a poster are originally created in a diverse set of mediums; from woodcuts to 100% digital to watercolors and everywhere in between. Overall, it makes the book feel like one of the Illustrator Directories rather than a document of an art movement. Sometimes a single band will be the only common thread between 8 posters of incredibly diverse aesthetics. I guess this could be seen as an asset for the book overall, or a liability.

However, there are some real gems of design, lettering, and concept in the mix. Like Mr. Reusch's halloween themed gouache poster, Mig Kokinda's stencil-and-spray posters, or Jason Munn's simple and powerful designs. I ended marking about a dozen pages or so with post-its.

Psychedelic poster art (and it's evolution into the now common use of poster illustration in conjunction with live music events) has an interesting history to go with it's eyeball-pleasing and brain twisting visuals. I'm glad to have books like these in my collection as another level to appreciate music. They are a way to learn about these artists and musicians that also inspirine me to work with creative typography and information design as fine art myself. They are innovative (especially when taken in context of there creation), creative, and very accessible. Collecting these posters can be very expensive, so books like these are a great way to get access to a huge quantities of psychedelic images.

There are other poster books out there, psychedelic or otherwise, as well as some of these poster artists having their own books.

I've really beenn enjoying published collections of advertising art, movie poster art, and rock poster books a lot lately, so please comment with other poster art books (or websites or artists) that you enjoy.

Who's Gonna Empty the Catbox???

Who else to drag me out of my lackadaisical art book reviewing habits and lift the bleak bloggers-block the has befallen this once great website but the royal couple of independent art publishing: Mel Kadel and Travis Millard? 

A new zine from either one of this pair would be enough to get the juices flowing, but when they collaborate on a project together, you best be there or be square.

Who's Gonna Empty The Catbox??? delivers the goods. 56 pages of quality drawings with many double-page spreads. Some art is from Travis (lots of smoke, hair, and grotesquery), some is from Mel (defiant ladies in their striped and textured environments). A couple of photos of the artists so you can get to know them a little better are in there as well, along with some scribbled musing from the waiting room.

But the real tasty treats are when Mook and Fudge (I know them so I can call them that) combine forces to construct gorgeous illustrated interactions. These people can draw, and they're creative, plus they have a sense of humor so you can actually have fun while looking at art.

The zine is mostly black and white, but there are some awesome color inserts, and the cover is a 2-color serigraph. 5.5 x 8.5". Although hand-made and hand numbered (edition of 220), the quality of this and all Millard/Kadel productions will make the rest of the zines in your collection want to burn themselves in shame.

Spoiler Alert: There doesn't seem to be any actual images of the titular catbox in this book.

You can order this and other great items direct from the Fudge Factory (real mature URL, Travis) here: www.fudgefactorycomics.com/. $15. Tell them RoMo sent you and you may get free stickers, no promises. 

Open Studios Press: New American Paintings #91 Pacific Coast Edition

The publication New American Paintings is a juried painting book/magazine that comes out six times a year, one issue for each major region in the United States. The current edition, December/January #91 Pacific Coast was juried by Berkeley Art Museum director Larry Rinder, and features a plethora of bay area painters. Among these painters are myself and Christopher Russell, who showed here at Rowan Morrison in 2008. Congratulations!

#91 is available on newsstands now and costs $20.00.


Christopher Russell


Narangkar Glover


Narangkar Glover

Found Paper Journals are back.

I'm back blogging it up about my favorite art books and zines. While I've been away I've been collecting more art books, making art, and hoarding every scrap of interesting paper I can get my hands on for the latest edition of the Rowan Morrison Found Paper Journal which just became available today.

Now it's time for a confession. While, of course, I have one of the FPJs as a little sketchbook/notebook thing in the studio, I find it very difficult to write in. That's because the papers inside are so damn awesome on their own. Seriously, who would have thought that an assembly of random papers would be more aesthetically compelling than most abstract art and design out there today.

And this edition is even better than all previous editions because we got really obsessive with including really great papers. You have your usually excellent assortment of accounting ledgers and colored loose leaf and graph papers. But I also hunted out some amazing mimeographed worksheets, job applications, some of the free promotional pads that pharmaceutical companies give doctors, grade-school newsprint that is over 50 years old, and some of the most delicate onion skin typing paper imaginable.

Of course there are lots of awesome Braille pages, mostly harvested from issues of 1990s Rolling Stone Braille Edition magazine. There are some mental institution disciplinary forms in there (never can have too many of those), a few map pages, and even some deluxe watercolor paper. One FPJ even has some one's death certificate in there! No kidding.

Honestly, sometimes I get a little disappointed that a "blank book" like this sells far better than any art book or zine I could ever conceive. But I view these things are art books as well as blank books. It's rewarding to have an outlet for my collecting habits, and it seems like a lot of other crafty people have connected with this publication. And do I even have to mention that this is a "green" product. I didn't think so.

The Found Paper Journal is 7.5x5" and has about 128 pages. The embossed chipboard cover features an original scissors design by Narangkar Glover. Rounded corners and hand-stamped on the back. Bound with animal-free glue. Made entirely in Oakland, California. This edition is of about 500 books, with 50 of them with retro, first edition covers!

You can get more info or order yours in our online shop here. Still only $10!

And as a special bonus, if you post a comment on this blog you might get randomly selected to win a free Found Paper Journal of your own. Just leave a (positive) comment below (make sure to have it connected to your blogger account or url so we can track you down when you win) and we'll pick a random winner by mid-October. If all goes well, we'll have more art book give-aways coming up.

Please, don't let the prospect of winning a free journal discourage you from actually purchasing one.

Update: Congrats, Plinio! You'll be getting your Journal soon! Everybody feel free to continue to post comments about how great our products are.

Great to be back!

This Blog has a new URL

Since our last blog entry, the good folks over at blogger have decided to discontinue the use of FTP uploading. Therefore, the URL of rowanmorrison.com/blog no longer works for posting new blog entries. Henceforth, we will be posting new blog entries (with great frequency and regularity) at our new blog wed address: artbooksblog.blogspot.com. 

Bookmark it.
In the meanwhile, check out the new issue of Junk Pirate zine, available now.

Art Book Wishlist, January 2010

Phillip Guston: Paintings 1947-1979
Hatje Cantz Publishers
Contributions by Michael Auping, Martin Hentschel, Christoph Schreier.
I've always admired and adored the work of Phillip Guston, but I still don't have a book! Unfortunately, according to D.A.P. this book is out of print.






A good alternative to the monograph would be this catalogue:
Phillip Guston Retrospective
Thames & Hudson, 2006Text by Michael Auping










I've been waiting for a good David Park monograph, and lo and behold, here it is finally:


David Park, Painter - Nothing Held Back
Helen Bigelow
Published by Hudson Hills Press, September 2009

"David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back" chronicles the brief but remarkably prolific career of American painter David Park. In his 49 years, he became an integral part of the San Francisco Bay art community in the early 1930s, and is counted as one of the immensely gifted artists who were part of the Bay Area Figurative Painting movement in its nascent beginnings in the 1950s. Park, who was drawing in perspective by the time he was five years old, began his professional career before the age of twenty, apprenticing together with sculptor Gordon Newell for sculptor Ralph Stackpole's monumental columns that were being erected in front of the Pacific Stock Exchange in California. His work was widely exhibited during his lifetime at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the California Legion of Honor. In addition, Park was a faculty member of the San Francisco Art Institute and later the University of California, Berkeley. Together with the 100 paintings featured, this monograph shows an artist who possessed a life-long passion for painting.

The Horror

My appreciation of art began not with "fine art" at all. It started with an appreciation for creative and aesthetic mediums outside from the gallery, museum, or other "fine art" outlets. As I believe is common with many artists and art fans my age, I was led to fine art through cartoons, comic books, and advertising design. Skateboard graphics, album covers, and even breakfast cereal boxes were vastly more engaging than anything framed on a white wall, and it was a love of movies and music videos that led to me art college in the mid-1990s.

These days, I'm saturated with fine art. Running a gallery, publishing art books, and being a working studio artist trying to keep abreast of the art world has me constantly inundated with high art and the lowbrow art that is currently high art. Frankly, I often feel uninspired and weighed down by the constant barrage of "fine art" and "fine artists". I even take steps to try to stay out of the incessant stream of art world opinions and discussions, but they seem to find me anyway.

So when I'm looking for inspiration or just something to get the creative stoke flowing again, I head back to the roots and look towards non-art artworks to refresh me. Luckily, between the internet and a healthy stream of compilation art books, there are plenty of archives to reference and appreciate.

Nosferatu 1922

One of my current favorites is Horror Poster Art, edited by Tony Nourman and Graham Marsh. It was published in 2004 by Aurum Press in the UK and part of a large series of movie poster books by Nourman and Marsh. This 12 x 9 inch book features neaqrly 200 pages of full color reproductions from over 80 years of horror film poster art. From early silent movies to B monster flicks to foreign cinema classics and even more, this book covers some film favorites and some great design work for less-than stellar movies. 

Hӓxan (Heksen) 1922
The Invisible Man 1933

The design of movie posters seems to be a lost craft these days, where artistic creativity and bold designs are almost always tossed aside in favor of giant celebrity headshots or photos with digital manipulated backgrounds.

Some of the really interesting pieces come from the foreign versions of American horror films, such as the Czech Psycho poster by Zdenek Ziegler or the Polish Alien (Obcy) poster by Jakub Erol. Often the artists making these posters were given only a title and brief summary of the film to work from. The Eastern European posters are famous for their abstract and conceptual designs. Awesome stuff.

Along with the bold images of the posters in the book there is commentary on the artists, the style, or other commonalities within the film subgenres.

Another great movie poster art book I own is Who Goes There?. It features 1950's horror and sci-fi movie posters and lobby cards. This was just a great era for charming B horror and monster movies, and often the posters and artwork (as well as art direction for the films) is far superior to the acting and story within the films themselves.

And, finally, a while back I purchased Vintage Hollywood Posters III. Rather than an art book, this is an auction catalog for a sale in June of 2000. This catalog covers far more than just old horror films, and has the bonus of having the estimated values of the posters printed under each image (they go for anywhere between $500 and $10,000). 

All three of these books costs around $20 when I got them (the Horror Poster Art book was £19), but it seems like all three are out of print now. I'm sure you can find them around the net used, or lots of other similar books. 

I'm very happy that lots of design media that originally created for promotion or packaging is now being appreciated as art... and that publishers are compiling books like these for us to enjoy.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness 1965