Psychedelia from yesterday and today

July 11, 2003 11:20 AM

Bob Masse's Rock Posters ~ Thirty-five years of poster art by one of North America's premier poster artists.
posted by crunchland (5 comments total)

There's a Karl Ferris exhibition in Vancouver for the next three weeks, if you happen to be here.

Ferris did "psychedelic" photos of Hendrix, including the american cover of "Are You Experienced?". Beware – his site could cause flashbacks in vulnerable minds.
posted by timeistight at 11:34 AM on July 11, 2003

Paging Alphonse Mucha... Mr. Mucha, please call your office...

There's a fine line between homage and stealing outright. Masse's portraits, in particular, are very close versions (with color changes and some simplification) of some of Mucha's works. A little too close, if you ask me.

Love Masse's rock posters, though.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:57 AM on July 11, 2003

Mucha is the man for me too.

I was just trawling for a decent link when I spotted Asparagirl's comment. Unlike her however, I find this just looks unoriginal through and through - I'm surprised Masse has lasted so long if all he produces are these re-treads.
posted by Gamecat at 12:11 PM on July 11, 2003

someone said the same thing about rock and roll back in 1968.
posted by quonsar at 1:08 PM on July 11, 2003

Bob Masse wasn't the only psychedelic-era poster artist to nick from the Art Nouveau era in general and Mucha in particular, I reckon there's a bit of that influence in all the '60s San Francisco guys. Interesting, though, that Masse didn't seem to change his style significantly in thirty years of work--but for the band names, the '90s stuff looks like it could have come from the '60s.
posted by arto at 2:23 AM on July 12, 2003