Direct from Shepard Fairey:
John Van Hamersveld’s Hendrix is my favorite poster of all time. I published a beautiful large format, fine art screen print edition of the image. Best known for his legendary poster for the 1964 blockbuster surf film The Endless Summer and his album covers for the Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour), The Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street), Jefferson Airplane (Crown of Creation), the Grateful Dead (Skeletons in the Closet), Kiss (Hotter Than Hell) and Blondie (Eat to the Beat), among others, as well as the mind-bending concert posters he created while operating the Pinnacle concert production company, John Van Hamersveld has built up a wide-ranging body of work over a career verging on its sixth decade. He has been at various times artist, illustrator and designer. Among his other creations: an official poster and 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games; illustrations for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Billboard; and branding and logos for Fatburger, Contempo Casuals and Broadway Deli. The iconography of his work runs deep, from Day-Glo tones to trippy swirls to the grinning “Johnny face,” an icon in itself.
Van Hamersveld’s “Pinnacle Hendrix” poster is one of the most recognizable and graphically powerful designs of the 1960s, and a quintessential expression of the psychedelic confluence of art, music and culture. The poster was originally created to promote Jimi Hendrix’s February 1968 concert at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, part of the Pinnacle concert series organized by Van Hamersveld and the Single Wing Turquoise Bird lightshow group. Though the Pinnacle concerts spanned less than a year, from November ‘67 to September ’68, they included such illustrious acts as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Cream, Traffic, the Velvet Underground, The Who, Pink Floyd and of course Hendrix, with Van Hamersveld designing posters for every event. The original “Pinnacle Hendrix” poster was printed in a run of 2000 and distributed to head shops and bookstores around Los Angeles and the nearby beach communities.
It is a 32 1/4″ x 44 1/4″ 5-color Screenprint, signed/numbered edition of 180, and cost $600. On sale Thursday, October 24th at a 10am PDT HERE.
“Pinnacle Hendrix” by John Van Hamersveld. 32 1/4″ x 44 1/4″ 5-color Screenprint. Ed of 180 S/N. $600