Splash

This pair of Family Dog posters is features one poster from the Avalon and one from the Family Dog’s Denver venue at 1601 West Evans Street. When the two pieces are joined together they form a rainbow design that was a collaboration between two of San Francisco’s Big Five psychedelic poster artists, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin. Try to identify which elements of the design were by Griffin and which by Moscoso.

During the fall of 1967, The Family Dog was running a 4-month experiment producing events at "the Denver Dog," a venue also known as simply 1601 W. Evans Street in Denver.  These twin posters (Bahr Gallery also stocks the a pair of the smaller twin handbills - please inquire) advertised shows on Dec 1-2, 1967 in Denver and back home in San Francisco at the Avalon on Dec 8-10. Jim Kweskin and his Jug Band (which included Geoff and Maria Muldour) were the featured performers on both bills, backed by the Sons of Champlin in San Francisco and a local band in Denver called Solid Muldoon. 

The San Francisco art scene was very different from the New York scene where artists kept their studios barred from entry lest someone see what they are doing and try to copy it. In the Bay Area the artists competed openly – after all their work would be up on telephone poles and in store window the next week. They borrowed and stole ideas from each other frequently but also collaborated, such as in this pair of posters. Of course Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley were a committed team but Mouse, Kelley and Moscoso all collaborated with Griffin. Moscoso and Griffin collaborated on 6 posters but several were pairs, like these.