{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1172447"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1172447/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HB9530/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HB9530/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HB9530","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1172447","accessionNumber":"S.782-2010","objectType":"Poster","titles":[{"title":"Bill Graham Presents","type":"series title"}],"summaryDescription":"The Fillmore in San Francisco is a historic music venue, named after its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard. Known as the Fillmore Auditorium in the mid-1960s, concert promoter Bill Graham began a series of concerts featuring bands from the counterculture of the time. In 1968, due to his spiralling success, he moved to a larger venue which he named Fillmore West. Having closed in 1971, and after extensive repair work to fix earthquake damage, Graham's was revived when Live Nation reopened the original Fillmore venue in 1994.\r\n\r\nSan Francisco in the mid-1960s was the hub of the LSD and Hippie scene and the cultural and political rebellion of 1967's Summer of Love. The resulting influence of these factors on the artists of the area created the fantastic psychedelic posters of the Fillmore. Art dealer Jacaeber Kastor said of the posters, \"They couldn't just tell you the information about the show. They had to tell you what kind of people you might meet, what kind of far out trip you might have or perhaps even reveal the mysteries of the universe. Wow. Quantum mechanics, visual mudwrestling, Acid test pop quiz on a phone pole!\"\r\n\r\nThe artist of this poster, Wes Wilson, was a designer in the San Francisco small press company Contact, creating posters for Bill Graham's Fillmore and rival promoter Chet Helms' Avalon Ballroom. He stopped working for Helms in August 1966, as he received more artistic freedom from Graham. He adapted his lettering style from an Art Nouveau and Expressionism exhibition, expanding the outlines and shapes exaggeratedly, creating intense patterns for the backgrounds. He used vibrant and contrasting colours, which, combined with the patterns, often made the text almost indecipherable. His choice of colours was to reflect the nature of the stimulating light shows that accompanied the concerts. \r\n\r\nThis gig at the Fillmore Auditorium featured Jefferson Airplane, a seminal psychedelic band whose 1967 album <i>Surrealistic Pillow</i> is considered one of the key recordings of the Summer of Love. The James Cotton Blues Band also played; famous for his harmonica playing, James Cotton and his band mainly played their own arrangements of popular blues and R&B material from the 1950s and 60s, and toured with Janis Joplin.","physicalDescription":"Poster advertising Jefferson Airplane, James Cotton, Chicago Blues Band, and Moby Grape at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 25, 26 and 27 November 1966. Multicoloured striped background, with text incorporated into lower half of illustration of a woman with bare chest, shielding her face with her elbow, with a man peering from behind her.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Wilson, Wes","id":"A3062"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"}],"techniques":[{"text":"lithography","id":"AAT53271"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Lithography on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Advertising","id":"THES49001"},{"text":"Posters","id":"THES252963"}],"styles":[{"text":"Psychedelic","id":"AAT112743"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2014HB9530"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"010","id":"THES345283"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"posters","id":"AAT27221"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"San Francisco","id":"x32036"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1966","earliest":"1966-01-01","latest":"1966-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National  Design Museum","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"56.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"34.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Transferred as part of a collection from the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, in 1985.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Poster advertising Jefferson Airplane, James Cotton, Chicago Blues Band, and Moby Grape at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 25, 26 and 27 November 1966. Designed by Wes Wilson.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lemke, Gayle <i>The Art of the Fillmore 1966-71</i>, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1999"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Poster Collecting.</i> Fillmore Poster. 06 August 2010.\r\n <https://www.fillmoreposter.com/products1.php?cat=BG>"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"San Francisco","id":"x32036"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Jefferson Airplane","id":"N14942"},{"text":"James Cotton","id":"N14945"},{"text":"Chicago Blues Band","id":"N15340"},{"text":"Moby Grape","id":"N14905"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"psychedelia","id":"x37591"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.782-2010"],"accessionNumberNum":"782","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2010,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Bill Graham's numbering system","id":"THES56773"},"number":"BG 39"}],"copyNumber":"Second Edition","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-08","recordCreationDate":"2010-09-17","availableToBook":true}}