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UNPRECEDENTED NEW EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE GRAPHIC ARTS OF THREE PLEASURE DRIVEN CULTURES
HIGH SOCIETIES SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Museum of Art opens its special exhibition High Societies on May 26, treating visitors to three significant moments in popular art which includes the largest survey of psychedelic rock posters organized in twenty-five years. The exhibition joins selections from the extensive collection of psychedelic rock posters owned by Paul Prince with the Museum's collections of Japanese woodblock prints and posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, High Societies is an unprecedented collaboration among three of the Museum's curatorial departments: American art, European art, and Asian art. According to the Museum's executive director Don Bacigalupi, "This exhibition presents a unique opportunity for the entire community to explore treasures from the Museum's collection in new and exciting contexts. Additionally, the presentation of 1960s rock posters introduces our visitors to an important moment in the history of American graphic design that is currently gaining recognition as an estimable art form." In spite of the diversity of time, place, and culture that each component of the exhibition represents, all three present graphic images that, in their day, promoted popular entertainments by imparting a sense of their spirit and experience. Though originally conceived as ephemeral, these graphic works have ultimately made their way from the street to the fine art museum. Japanese Woodblock Prints and the Floating World of Edo The exhibition opens with a selection of approximately 30 Japanese polychrome woodblock prints organized by the Museum's curator of Asian art, Dr. Caron Smith. Dating to the first half of the 19th century, these images celebrate the entertainments of the "floating world" (ukiyo) of Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Two hundred years and shifting cultural perspectives on Japanese color woodblock prints have veiled the context of their creation. Westerners have especially appreciated these prints for their bold designs, elegant lines, and use of unshaded color, qualities the impressionists and post-impressionists incorporated into their works. Whatever their monetary value today, most of them began as cheap, mass-produced, quickly-issued souvenirs of rowdy theaters, pleasure houses, fashion displays, and drunken excesses that took place in the theaters and licensed pleasure quarters on the edges of the city. This was the "floating world" where a growing merchant class enjoyed entertainments outside the restrictions imposed by the Shogunate society that governed the city. These prints celebrating fashion, conspicuous consumption, high living, and the ephemeral were a threat to the feudal society they defied. The Tokugawa shoguns repeatedly imposed laws in an attempt to regulate the production of prints that ran counter to Neo-Confucian mores. Artists resorted to hidden modes of dissent. Many of the prints on view bear the censor's seal required for legal publication. Toulouse-Lautrec and the Cabarets of Montmartre In contrast to these official constraints on Edo society, Paris during the last decades of the 19th century was a permissive urban society that allowed for significant freedom in personal expression. This is readily apparent in the look and feel of the 38 posters displayed in the exhibition's next section Toulouse-Lautrec and the Cabarets of Montmartre, assembled by the Museum's curator of European art, Steven Kern. In addition to all 31 posters Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec produced between 1891 and 1899, this section presents works by Lautrec's contemporaries: Pierre Bonnard, Jules Chéret, Alfred Choubrac, Alphonse Mucha, Théophile Steinlen, and Alphonse Faure. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is so closely associated with Montmartre that his name grew to symbolize, even in his own day, the lifestyle and character of that quarter of the French capital. In the 1890s, the clubs, cabarets, and dance halls of Montmartre attracted the full range of Parisian residents and visitors, from the aristocracy to factory workers. Lautrec's art, especially his posters, had profound impact on the consumers of Montmartre's pleasures and entertainment. While his images were innovative in style and technique, it was his approach to subject matter that was truly revolutionary. With his posters, he broke down the barrier between viewer and image, inviting participation with the activity depicted. Lautrec's posters dominated Paris in the 1890s and defined turn-of-the-century poster art throughout Europe. Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-Ashbury Just as Lautrec's art has become emblematic of late 19th century Paris, the posters of the final and largest section of High Societies, Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-Ashbury, have become iconic images of 1960s American culture. Curated by the Museum's curator of American art, D. Scott Atkinson, it features 110 posters belonging to Santa Barbara resident Paul Prince who has been collecting examples of psychedelic graphic art for over 30 years. The majority of these posters served to promote the dance concerts held in San Francisco's fabled Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms organized by the self-made impresarios Bill Graham and Chet Helms from 1965 to 1971. The bands most frequently featured at the concerts, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, emerged from the local "hippie" community burgeoning in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. These events were multifaceted experiences of which the music was only one part. Those attending moved about the hall freely, dancing or watching the "light show" created before their eyes by luminary artists who mixed colored oil with water to produce swirling, amoeba-shaped forms that were projected onto the walls. The events were complete environments of sound, light, and motion, enhanced for some participants by the LSD experience. The exhibition is comprised of pristine examples of the posters printed at the time of these events. Numerous artists are represented in the exhibition, including a large sampling of works from the so-called "Big Five" of psychedelic poster design: Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin. Breaking every convention of graphic design with their twisting, melting, and contorting forms, these artists' compositions conveyed the ambience and spirit of the dance concert experience. Although these artists may not be household names, the influence of their work has had a lasting impact as elements of their psychedelic designs continue to be prevalent in the media today. High Societies is an ambitious program that reexamines popular advertisements of three pleasure driven cultural environments. The three exhibitions organized under this rubric present a unique opportunity to observe commercial graphic art's journey from low to high art, and, in the case of Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-Ashbury, to witness and participate in this process. Sponsorship High Societies is made possible in part by Paul James Baldwin and members of the San Diego Museum of Art. Exhibition Hours: Tuesday - Sunday: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., and Thursday: 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Tickets: Tickets go on sale April 17 and are available at the San Diego Museum of Art box office or by calling Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497. Prices: Adults $8; Seniors (65+), Young Adults (18-24), Students and Military with I.D. $6; Children (6-17) $3. Children 5 and under are free. Exhibition Related Programming: The presentation of High Societies is complemented by a series of free outdoor films that capture the social, cultural, and political climate of the 1960s. On June 16, the Museum is also hosting a Rock 'n' Roll Love Fest featuring some of the greatest acts of the 1960s. For information, call (619) 696-1966. The historic San Diego Museum of Art is now celebrating its 75th year of providing a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 500,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned permanent collection includes European, American, Asian, and contemporary art, most notably Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures, and works by contemporary California artists. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs. Contacts
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