NEW YORK – “Hey hey, my my, rock ’n’ roll will never die.” Many of the stellar rock bands of the 1960s, including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, are represented in an online auction of vintage psychedelic rock concert posters to be conducted by Jasper52 on Tuesday, April 3. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
The auction consists of 135 lots of posters, handbills and related artworks.
Grace Slick, lead singer of the San Francisco-based Jefferson Airplane, retired from performing in 1989 and began a new career in the visual arts in the mid-1990s. Since then she has had more than 30 exhibits and is represented by some of the best galleries in the United States. Her lithograph portrait of Jerry Garcia (above) of the Grateful Dead is titled Garcia W & B. The print, from an edition of 300, measures 22 by 29¾ inches. While galleries price this artwork around $2,000, the auction estimate is $750-$1,500.
A rare poster by artist Daniel Fennell of Liberty Graphics for the Grateful Dead’s 10-day engagement in June 1967 at New York’s Café Au Go Go heads an all-star lineup of psychedelic rock posters. From the Art of Rock series, the poster (below) has a $500-$1,000 estimate.
Rock concert promoter Bill Graham (1931-1991) published a poster for his 1967 summer series at Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, which featured Jefferson Airplane, guitarist Gábor Szabó and Jimi Hendrix, who opened the show. This was the first show that Hendrix played after the famous Monterey Pop Festival where he lit his guitar on fire. Hendrix quickly became one of the most popular acts of the Summer of Love. The rare BG-69 Jimi Hendrix/Jefferson Airplane poster by Clifford Charles Seeley is expected to sell for $400-$800.
Another Bill Graham Presents event from November 1967 featured Pink Floyd, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Richie Havens. Artist Bonnie MacLean’s BG-91 lithograph poster for the concerts at the Fillmore and Winterland measure 14 by 21 inches (est. $250-$500).
An authorized reprint of the famous Woodstock poster, published by Artrock in the 1990s, bears the signature of Grace Slick, who performed with Jefferson Airplane at the historic 1967 music festival in upstate New York. The 22-by-30-inch poster has a $350-$700 estimate.
Also from the 1990s is a large silkscreened poster signed by Frank Sinatra, which commemorates his reign at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. The poster is by Frank Kozik, an American artist best known for his posters for alternative rock bands. Even though 200 copies were signed and numbered, this poster was not officially issued as the Sinatra estate never cleared it for publication. Nevertheless, a handful of these was sold by the publisher and show up from time to time. Between 160-175 of these did not get released and were destroyed, making this the rarest Kozik poster (est. $1,500-$3,000).
The Jasper52 online auction will be conducted Tuesday, April 3, at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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