Liberation, LSD, and Style Liberte

Hey guys. First I wanted to apologize for the late post tonight - I spent most of the weekend shooting for some whale-watching cruisetours in digby county..exciting stuff, but too detached from class for my liking.

Anyway. This course has rekindled my love of art nouveau, particularly in print form. Through that love, several years ago I became familiar with the work of Nigel Weymouth and Michael English, who together were known as "hapshash and the coloured coat". They're known for art nouveau-inspired psychedelic rock posters of the 60's, but until taking this course, and, particularly, reading Guffey's chapter on the 1960's reccurence of the art nouveau aesthetic, I became more interested in what the appropriation of the older style came to symbolize for the now infamous hippy generation. What connections can we draw between the idealizations of the art nouveau and art frisco movement, as this later "movement" is known? How can we see our society's acceptance of technology, well cemented by the 60's, reflected in the meaning imbedded in later iterations of similar "styles"? Where does psychology and sociology come to play in this work?

My three examples of work are as follows. First, a poster by Alphonse Mucha, considered the pinnacle of printed art nouveau matter. Mucha was somewhat of a hermit to the 'fad' of art nouveau; he believed his art to have a simpler, spiritual origin rather than being a perfect and beautiful mixture of technologically advanced technique and organically based ornament. I believe his belief of artistic origin is fascinating when translated to the movements later recurrence.

Chronologically next comes the poster designed by the members of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat. The influences of LSD-fueled drug culture and the psychedelic aesthetic are clear in this piece. Also apparent is the reference to Mucha's innovative illustrative style; the reclining nude, strong emphasis on outline, and organic/curvolinear forms all originate from art nouveau ideals. The text is ornate and in many cases takes concentration to read. New to this iteration of the style are the vivid and psychedelic colours, a trend visible in all 60's eras underground poster that reflected the visual nature of a culture that grew to embrace hallucinogenic drugs.

The third piece I want to use to relate these anachronistic posters to current events in todays culture. I've chosen the poster for the Evolve 2010 Festival. Unfortunately I've spent hours on the internet without being able to find even a tiny thumbnail of this years' poster (and I consider myself somewhat of an internet sleuth...), so for now I present to you the 2006 poster for the evolve music festival. The current poster uses a lot of similar themes and styles as this older one: bold colors, simple type, representative outlines of dancing people. I want to relate this poster with the more organic nature of my earlier examples, tying this in to our ever more technological culture, a culture increasingly more demanding of simplicity and ease of understanding.

Questions? Ideas? Comments? :)