Psychedelic

About

Psychedelic art emerged in the mid-1960s alongside the counterculture's interest in LSD and other hallucinogens, and it tried to make that experience visible: pulsing colour, endless pattern, warped space and forms that seem to breathe. Its best-known outlet was the concert poster. In San Francisco, designers including Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Bonnie MacLean, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley made posters for the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom from 1966, stretching lettering until it was barely legible and setting complementary colours to vibrate.

The style drew on Art Nouveau, Op Art and Surrealism, and on light shows projected at concerts. In London, Martin Sharp's covers for Oz magazine spread the look, and in Japan Keiichi Tanaami fused it with Pop and manga imagery. In the Peruvian Amazon, Pablo Amaringo painted intricate visions drawn from ayahuasca ceremonies. Look for clashing complementary colour, mirrored symmetry and forms that flow into one another.