On This Day in Art Rock History

A DAILY CHRONICLE

SAN FRANCISCO · THE PSYCHEDELIC ERA · 1960s

The Artists

The poster makers of the San Francisco psychedelic era. We begin with the “Big Five” — the artists who, between 1966 and 1968, invented the visual language of the scene — and grow the roster as the archive fills in.

Alton Kelley
Alton Kelley (June 17, 1940 – June 1, 2008) was born in Houlton, Maine, and raised in Connecticut, where he worked as a welder and helicopter mechanic, raced mo
Bob Fried
Robert "Bob" Fried (1937–1975) was an American painter, printmaker, and second-wave San Francisco psychedelic poster artist.
Bob Masse
Bob Masse is a Canadian (Vancouver, British Columbia) psychedelic poster artist active since the 1960s — among the foremost figures of the Pacific Northwest and
Bob Schnepf
Bob Schnepf was a San Francisco poster artist active for the Family Dog in 1968, in the Avalon Ballroom's final full year.
Bonnie MacLean
Bonnie MacLean (December 28, 1939 – February 4, 2020) was an American artist who became one of the few prominent women in the male-dominated San Francisco psych
Casey Simpson
Casey Simpson is the artist most often credited with FD-130, the Family Dog poster for the Avalon Ballroom's July 26–28, 1968 run (Quicksilver Messenger Service
Clifford Charles Seeley
Clifford Charles Seeley (sometimes rendered "Seely") is the credited artist of BG-69, the Bill Graham Fillmore Auditorium poster for the six-night Jefferson Air
David Singer
David Singer (b.
Dennis Nolan
Dennis Arthur Nolan (1945–2022) was born in San Francisco and studied painting and art history at San Jose State University.
Don Ryder
Don Ryder (Don T.
Dore
"Dore" appears as a poster credit; no biographical information is documented (and it is not the 19th-century engraver Gustave Doré).
Frank Melton
Frank Melton is credited with the Straight Theater's 1967 grand-opening poster (AOR-2.220), the single sheet that advertised the Haight Street venue's debut wee
George Hunter
George Hunter (b.
Greg Irons
Gregory Rodman "Greg" Irons (September 29, 1947 – November 14, 1984) was born in Philadelphia and was largely self-taught, citing early MAD paperbacks as a form
Heinrich Kley
Heinrich Kley (April 15, 1863, Karlsruhe – February 8, 1945, Munich) was a German illustrator, painter, and caricaturist — NOT a 1960s poster maker.
Herb Greene
Herb Greene (April 3, 1942 – March 3, 2025) was one of the defining photographers of the San Francisco rock scene, and his connection to the poster catalog is a
Jerry Wainwright
Jerry Wainwright was a San Francisco poster and photographic artist who worked for the Family Dog in 1968.
Lee Conklin
Lee Conklin (born July 24, 1941, in New Jersey) became Bill Graham's principal poster artist from the summer of 1968 into 1969 — the bridge figure between the f
Michael Ferguson
Michael (Mike) Ferguson (birth date not documented; died 1979) was the pianist and an original member of The Charlatans, formed in San Francisco in mid-1964.
Passalaqua
"Passalaqua" is credited on a 1966 California Hall poster (AOR-2.156); no biographical information about the person is documented beyond the catalog/dealer list
Paul Kagan
Paul Kagan was a San Francisco photographer active in the late-1960s Bay Area rock and underground-press scene, best remembered as an image-maker whose photogra
Rick Griffin
Richard Alden “Rick” Griffin (June 18, 1944 – August 18, 1991) came of age in Southern California’s booming early-’60s surf culture.
Robert Fried
Robert Fried (1937-1975) was a San Francisco painter and poster artist who designed for the Family Dog at the Avalon Ballroom.
Stanley Mouse
Stanley George Miller — known as Stanley Mouse — was born October 10, 1940, in Fresno, California, but raised in Detroit, where his eye was forged on the Midwes
Tom Glass
Tom Glass was a San Francisco–area poster artist of the late 1960s who signed his Family Dog work with the pseudonym "Ned Lamont." Beyond the poster credits, th
Tom Wilkes
Tom Wilkes (July 30, 1939, Long Beach, CA – June 28, 2009, Pioneertown, CA) was an American graphic designer and art director, one of the defining visual hands
Victor Moscoso
Victor Moscoso was born July 28, 1936, in Vilaboa, in the Culleredo municipality of Galicia, Spain, near A Coruña.
Wes Wilson
Robert Wesley “Wes” Wilson (July 15, 1937 – January 24, 2020) was born in Sacramento and came to poster art sideways — not through formal training but through a
William Reid
Biographical detail is undocumented.