Visual Materials
The Tony Newhall collection of rock concert posters consists of 62 offset lithographed concert posters produced from 1966 to 1967 for the Bill Graham concert series at the Fillmore Auditorium (later Fillmore West) in San Francisco, California. Bill Graham was a concert promoter who ran the Fillmore West in San Francisco, California, and the Fillmore East in New York City. Graham's concerts were originally designed to promote local-based San Francisco musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. His influence in promoting artists spread to the wider popularization of rock music during the late 1960s and 1970s counterculture movement. A total of 289 posters were created for the entire concert series spanning from 1966 to 1971; this collection contains the first 62 prints of the series. Tony Newhall assembled the collection by acquiring pieces from concerts he attended at the Fillmore Auditorium, from purchases made through vendors in the Bay Area, and through receipt of 20 prints from Bill Graham directly when he interviewed him as a student in Stanford. Images on the prints by artists Wes Wilson, Peter Bailey, Bonnie MacLean, and John H. Myers exemplify graphic design during the early years of the psychedelic era. Many of the printmakers also incorporated photographs taken by Edmund Shea, Gered Mankowitz, and Herb Greene of the musical performers in their prints. The concert posters include visual motifs of Art Nouveau-inspired curvilinear forms, illegible and fluid block lettering styles, and usage of vibrant optics and colors.
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