Poster Children

"American Artifact" Released on DVD March 27

by Peter Aaron, February 25, 2010

Promoter Chet Helms, Bill Graham’s chief rival during those heady days of early concerts by the Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Grateful Dead, and other bands at San Francisco’s Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms, had a revelation after learning that the ornate posters advertising the shows were disappearing as fast as he was putting them up. “People began to steal them,” Helms recalled. “It took me three weeks to get beyond anger and frustration with that and to realize that that was the signal of our success, that the most we could hope for was to create posters that people would rip off the walls. When we had that going, we were really moving.” Besides building the buzz about the concerts, Helms and his peers had created the rock poster-collecting movement.

Newburgh documentarian Merle Becker’s American Artifact is an eye-dazzling look at the first 50 years of American rock-’n’-roll posters and the lives, methods, and attitudes of their creators. Using her own narration and colorful commentary from the artists, Becker’s film examines the utilitarian “boxing match”-style showbills of the 1950s; weaves its way through the swirling 1960s psychedelic works of San Francisco’s “Big Five” (Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson, and Rick Griffin) and their Detroit contemporary Gary Grimshaw; tears into the—literally—cut-and-paste punk fliers of the ’70s and ’80s; and finally explodes into the retina-blasting, neon-bright conceptions of ’90s stalwarts like Frank Kozik, COOP, and Art Chantry, and the newer wave of artists they inspired. A perfect storm for fans of art, music, and graphic design, American Artifact is a captivating and long-overdue tour through one of pop culture’s most fascinating sub genres.
A double-DVD edition of American Artifact, featuring nearly two hours of extras, will be released by Freakfilms on March 27. A free release party and film screening will take place on the same day at the Wherehouse in Newburgh. (845) 561.7240; www.freakfilms.com.