This eye-popping book offers a visual history of the psychedelic sensibility. In pop culture, that sensibility is associated with lava lamps, album covers, and "teashades," but it first manifested itself in the extreme colors and kaleidoscopic compositions of 1960s Op Artists. The psychedelic sensibility didn't die at the end of the 1960s; Psychedelic traces it through the day-glo colors of painters Peter Saul, Alex Grey, and Kenny Scharf, the pill and hemp leaf paintings of Fred Tomaselli, the intensified palettes of Douglas Bourgeois and Sharon Ellis, and mixed-media and new media works by younger artists in the new millennium. Although the term "psychedelic" was coined to describe hallucinatory experiences produced by drugs used psychotherapeutically, the story these images tell is about the influence of psychedelic culture on the art world--not necessarily the influence of drugs. As contemporary art evolved into a diverse and pluralistic discipline, the psychedelic evolved into a language of color and light. In Psychedelic, more than seventy-five vivid color images chart this development, exploring the art chronologically, from early Op Art through recent work using digital technology. The book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art, includes three essays that set the works in historical and cultural context.
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"A treasure trove of visionary delights, and his essay provides a convincing analysis of the altered state of art since the '60s." Ken Johnson New York Times
"This is a beautiful book to hold in one's hands and its ability to capture the eye, through such diverse means, is a great testament to both editor and artists alike. Sumptuous wonderlands indeed." The Psychedelic Press UK
About the Author
David S. Rubin is The Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Accompanying an exhibition at the San Antonio Museum of Art, this splendid, well-selected collection of 74 plates and three critical essays offers the reader the spectrum of optical, illusional, and drug-influenced Western art that has explored perception, mind realities, and popular technological culture since the early 1960s. Visionary and even spiritual, the fine reproductions dazzle and stimulate. The group oddly, but understandably, does not include any of the popular advertising posters for Fillmore or Avalon Ballrooms in San Francisco or any of the E.C. Escher mind-twisting illustrations. The precision in the collection of 'serious' art advances the bright contrasts of Fauvists and the dreamlike world of Modernists. Curator David Rubin's first essay provides the historical introduction, mentioning precedents and early approaches, and describes each featured artist's background and the particular representative art. Robert Morgan's essay is somewhat diffused and goes deeper into the counterculture, hippies, and the use of entheogens, such as LSD, mescaline, and cannabis. Mind and alternative realities were core to the movement and art and rock music (versus Beat literature, poetry and jazz) were the communicative and ritual media. The later examples are less scientifically direct and show a return toward psychological allegory and personal cultural and societal criticism. The final essay of Daniel Pinchbeck is more ideological with its discussion of the cultural ramifications of these mind-effecting art. He focuses on spiritual transformation and transcendence, the pioneers of R. Gordon Wasson in Mexico in pursuit of mushrooms and William Burrough's ayuhuasca experiences in the Amazon. Sterile social materialism and complacency along with twin-bladed technology brought discontented thinkers to botanic vehicles of holistic experience. This appreciation of interdependent interconnectiveness, systems concepts, and ecological models continues to influence physics, environmental studies,and political policies. The lessons of indigenous peoples, shamans, and nature-integrative perspectives become more acute today. This book does not include art from such sources, as the peyote art of the Mexican Huichol shamans. Instead, the survey demonstrates the great variety of approaches in modern art. It is an appetizer for further examination of particular artists and forms, of which some good books are available.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Jimmy
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was hoping for some print quality versions of the visionary art you can easily find online by searching "visionary art" and the galleries and shows that show this type of art. There is a lot of great stuff out there. Unfortunately, this volume comes in short, with an overall vision of the book that doesn't quite deliver. There is a story of visionary art evolving from the 60s to today, but the art in this book don't do a good job of expressing it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a most scholarly look at optical and visionary art since the 1960's. The essays by David S. Rubin and others offer fascinating and new points of view on art work that is far more considered and complex than most would have imagined. The book is complete with rich and beautiful reproductions. Much is offered in this intellectual and visual publication.
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