Sixties Rock Poster Aritst Alton Kelley Dead At 67
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:That's It For The Other One: / Cryptical Envelopment / Quadlibet For Tender Feet / The Faster We Go, The Rounder We Get / We Leave The Castle
One of the great rock poster artists of all time, Alton Kelley, passed away Sunday. His death was due to "complications from a long illness," according to a press release.
Alton Kelly's contribution to the legendary art exhibit, Joint Show.It was Kelley, along with his creative partner Stanley Mouse and a handful of other artists, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin, who created a visual style that defined what '60s psychedelic rock looked like through the weekly posters they made for the Avalon Ballroom, Fillmore Auditorium, Carousel Ballroom and others in San Francisco the mid-late '60s. Those guys were practically rock stars in '66 and '67, their work talked about ad displayed in the deluge of media coverage.
Alton Kelly in 1967. Photo by Bob Seidemann.Kelley, among his other artistic talents, was a collage artist and after seeing some of his work, me and my best friend Dave, the two of us in our early teens, spent many a Saturday afternoon cutting photographs out of old Look and Life magazines, trying to make collages that were as trippy as the ones Alton Kelly made.
Iconic image lifted from rolling papers package by Alton Kelley.To talk about the work Kelley and his associates made as 'rock posters," does such a disservice to what they made in those crazy-ass times. Yeah, sure, the purpose of those posters was to let people know about who was playing that week, but really, that was beside the point, and the reason the work of those artists endures, the reason those of us lucky enough to get our hands on some of those posters when the "poster guy" would come around each week and put them up in book stores, galleries, record stores, boutiques, the window of any place that would have them around the Bay Area, have some of those posters hanging on our walls, is because they provided symbols and imagery that helped us see the countercultural world of their time.Kelley and Mouse created the album cover for the first Grateful Dead album, and they made posters for shows featuring such artists as Captain Beefheart, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish and numerous others.I met Kelley a couple of times, once at that infamous Joint Show opening in San Francisco, where he and the other key posters artists held court. I was kid and all I could do was tell him how much I dug his collages, it wasn't much of an exchange, but still! And years later, in the early '90s, I was putting together an exhibit on the '60s San Francisco scene for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I met Kelley and Mouse out in Sonoma, at Mouse's studio. By then the days when the whole world was watching had long passed. The two men were middle-aged, just trying to get by as artists, no longer the visual rock stars they'd once been. The weird thing is, that though I didn't know Alton Kelly, for 40 years I have thought about his art and that of his contemporaries and drawn inspiration from it. Whatever his place in history, in my personal history, he looms large.Below is the press release about his passing that his publicist sent out.[Petaluma, CA - Sunday, June 1, 2008] Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic Sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley, born June 17, 1940, passed away peacefully at home June 1st of complications from a long illness.He is survived by the true love of his life, Marguerite Trousdale Kelley. He also leaves his mother Annie, sister Kathy, and beloved children Patty, Yossarian, and China, and beautiful grandchildren Life and Lacoda.Through his mind-expanding creativity and over several decades, Kelley gave rock music new colors, shapes, and themes expressing the optimism and enthusiasm of young people around the globe. His graphics defined youth culture as much as the music itself-in effect his art was a break-through collaboration with musicians and bands such as the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. As Joel Selvin, rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, put it, "Kelley and Mouse drew the first face on rock music."Kelley and his life-long collaborator Stanley Mouse are best known for their posters for "San Francisco style" dance-concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland arena, the Fillmore West, the Avalon Ballroom, and a host of other Bay Area theaters and amphitheaters. They also created world-renowned posters and album covers for the Grateful Dead, Journey, Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and others.The two artists historically worked as a team, in their words "riffing off each other's giggle." They joyfully appropriated from historic sources, in one instance re-working an obscure nineteenth-century etching to create their iconic Grateful Dead "skeleton and roses" design. They combined vibrant Sixties color with French poster-making joi de vivre enthusiasm, and their own adapted technique, to generate compelling pieces often issued on a weekly basis, ultimately dazzling millions worldwide. Thus, they changed advertising art forever, as their posters were key examples of what became one of the most important art movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.When Kelley (a native of Maine) met Mouse (a native of Detroit, MI) in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in late 1965 (the "Haight" was the epicenter of the hippie movement, culminating in the "Summer of Love" in 1967), they instantly recognized they were kindred spirits in what Mouse describes as "one of the juiciest scenes of all time." Their concert posters, commissioned by Fillmore promoter Bill Graham and Graham's rival, the Avalon's Family Dog collective, were eagerly snapped up by bands and fans alike.In the decades since, Mouse and Kelley's classics have established even greater popularity, rivaling the interest long shown by collectors of French turn-of-the-century Belle Epoque art made famous by Toulouse-Lautrec and others."There is one word for Alton Kelley's lifelong contribution, and that is 'iconic.'" said Dell Furano, CEO of Signatures Network. "Kelley's artwork, designs, posters, album covers, tour logos set a standard of inspired creativity that has remained as influential as the great San Francisco Rock Scene of the 60's, 70's and 80's."In his later years, Kelley joyfully turned to illustrating hot rods and custom cars, as fine art paintings, and for t-shirts and other merchandise.In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at the Washington Mutual Western Street branch in Petaluma, CA for a memorial bench in a Sonoma County Park. A memorial event will be announced shortly.
Alton Kelly's contribution to the legendary art exhibit, Joint Show.It was Kelley, along with his creative partner Stanley Mouse and a handful of other artists, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin, who created a visual style that defined what '60s psychedelic rock looked like through the weekly posters they made for the Avalon Ballroom, Fillmore Auditorium, Carousel Ballroom and others in San Francisco the mid-late '60s. Those guys were practically rock stars in '66 and '67, their work talked about ad displayed in the deluge of media coverage.Alton Kelly in 1967. Photo by Bob Seidemann.Kelley, among his other artistic talents, was a collage artist and after seeing some of his work, me and my best friend Dave, the two of us in our early teens, spent many a Saturday afternoon cutting photographs out of old Look and Life magazines, trying to make collages that were as trippy as the ones Alton Kelly made.Iconic image lifted from rolling papers package by Alton Kelley.To talk about the work Kelley and his associates made as 'rock posters," does such a disservice to what they made in those crazy-ass times. Yeah, sure, the purpose of those posters was to let people know about who was playing that week, but really, that was beside the point, and the reason the work of those artists endures, the reason those of us lucky enough to get our hands on some of those posters when the "poster guy" would come around each week and put them up in book stores, galleries, record stores, boutiques, the window of any place that would have them around the Bay Area, have some of those posters hanging on our walls, is because they provided symbols and imagery that helped us see the countercultural world of their time.Kelley and Mouse created the album cover for the first Grateful Dead album, and they made posters for shows featuring such artists as Captain Beefheart, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish and numerous others.I met Kelley a couple of times, once at that infamous Joint Show opening in San Francisco, where he and the other key posters artists held court. I was kid and all I could do was tell him how much I dug his collages, it wasn't much of an exchange, but still! And years later, in the early '90s, I was putting together an exhibit on the '60s San Francisco scene for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I met Kelley and Mouse out in Sonoma, at Mouse's studio. By then the days when the whole world was watching had long passed. The two men were middle-aged, just trying to get by as artists, no longer the visual rock stars they'd once been. The weird thing is, that though I didn't know Alton Kelly, for 40 years I have thought about his art and that of his contemporaries and drawn inspiration from it. Whatever his place in history, in my personal history, he looms large.Below is the press release about his passing that his publicist sent out.[Petaluma, CA - Sunday, June 1, 2008] Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic Sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley, born June 17, 1940, passed away peacefully at home June 1st of complications from a long illness.He is survived by the true love of his life, Marguerite Trousdale Kelley. He also leaves his mother Annie, sister Kathy, and beloved children Patty, Yossarian, and China, and beautiful grandchildren Life and Lacoda.Through his mind-expanding creativity and over several decades, Kelley gave rock music new colors, shapes, and themes expressing the optimism and enthusiasm of young people around the globe. His graphics defined youth culture as much as the music itself-in effect his art was a break-through collaboration with musicians and bands such as the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. As Joel Selvin, rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, put it, "Kelley and Mouse drew the first face on rock music."Kelley and his life-long collaborator Stanley Mouse are best known for their posters for "San Francisco style" dance-concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland arena, the Fillmore West, the Avalon Ballroom, and a host of other Bay Area theaters and amphitheaters. They also created world-renowned posters and album covers for the Grateful Dead, Journey, Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and others.The two artists historically worked as a team, in their words "riffing off each other's giggle." They joyfully appropriated from historic sources, in one instance re-working an obscure nineteenth-century etching to create their iconic Grateful Dead "skeleton and roses" design. They combined vibrant Sixties color with French poster-making joi de vivre enthusiasm, and their own adapted technique, to generate compelling pieces often issued on a weekly basis, ultimately dazzling millions worldwide. Thus, they changed advertising art forever, as their posters were key examples of what became one of the most important art movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.When Kelley (a native of Maine) met Mouse (a native of Detroit, MI) in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in late 1965 (the "Haight" was the epicenter of the hippie movement, culminating in the "Summer of Love" in 1967), they instantly recognized they were kindred spirits in what Mouse describes as "one of the juiciest scenes of all time." Their concert posters, commissioned by Fillmore promoter Bill Graham and Graham's rival, the Avalon's Family Dog collective, were eagerly snapped up by bands and fans alike.In the decades since, Mouse and Kelley's classics have established even greater popularity, rivaling the interest long shown by collectors of French turn-of-the-century Belle Epoque art made famous by Toulouse-Lautrec and others."There is one word for Alton Kelley's lifelong contribution, and that is 'iconic.'" said Dell Furano, CEO of Signatures Network. "Kelley's artwork, designs, posters, album covers, tour logos set a standard of inspired creativity that has remained as influential as the great San Francisco Rock Scene of the 60's, 70's and 80's."In his later years, Kelley joyfully turned to illustrating hot rods and custom cars, as fine art paintings, and for t-shirts and other merchandise.In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at the Washington Mutual Western Street branch in Petaluma, CA for a memorial bench in a Sonoma County Park. A memorial event will be announced shortly.
Comments (9)