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The most important psychedelic poster in existence in my opinion and one of only three of the Norman Hartweg Acid Test posters , that can be authenticated, that survived with an actual venue to advertise the event.
It appears the Hartweg posters were specifically made up for the Acid Tests which were being held in December 1965 and early January 1966 . The first use of this posters was for the Big Beat Acid Test in Palo Alto on December 11, 1965 and the last use of the poster was for the Fillmore Acid Test on January 8, 1966.
The Big Beat Acid Test (see August 2009 Poster of the month for a picture of the Big Beat Acid Test poster) was held just a week after the San Jose Acid Test which was held on December 4, 1965. The San Jose Acid Test used hand produced posters made up the day of the event and was also the first time the Grateful Dead played for the Acid Tests.
After the Fillmore Acid Test, the famous Trips Festival was held with the Acid Test being part of the Saturday schedule. After the Trips Festival, Kesey headed off to Mexico, scared of being put into jail from his second marijuana bust, and the Grateful Dead and Pranksters headed down to Los Angeles where they met up with different group of performers such as Hugh Romley, Tiny Tim and others to carry on the Acid Tests.
This particular poster has a long and more than fascinating history documenting back to "ground zero" of the Grateful Dead with the earliest Acid Test participants including the famous Acid Maker, Owsley Stanley, who later signed the poster. The original(?) owner of this poster was Bob Thomas (he designed the famous Grateful Dead "steal your face" skull & lignting bolt), who said the poster was used as a wall decoration for the Fillmore Acid Test and he took it down at the end of the event and kept it until he sold in 40 years later. Owsley on the other hand thought the poster may have come from him at some point when he was working with the GD and he later gave it to Bob when they were living together. Regardless, the poser comes from a more than fine provenance.
The colors are truly fantastic and so so psychedelic done in magic day-glow markers like the early Family Dog black and white posters where some were hand colored in for events such as Tribute to Dr. Strange, FD 1, FD7, FD12 and others. Plans are to display this poster either in the R&R Hall of Fame or the Smithsonian Institution. |
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