PHOTOGRAPHING POSTER ART

Its Saturday 21st June 2008 - Solstice night at the The Basement in Brighton for an exhibition of rock poster art. I was there with my camera.

Two SF posters artists - Ron Donovan and Chuck Sperry (left back) from the Firehouse Studios have just arrived together with their friend and tour manager Marc Malakie (right). Theyare getting some welcome beers down.

Here is Ron doing what he does best - charging the place up with some righteous energy.

The occasion is a co-exhibition of their work alongside that of the Brighton-based British Rock Artists Group (BRAG).

The connection began a couple of years ago when Chuck & Ron came to the Brighton Festival in May 2006, with an all-American show called 'Sub-Screen Sonic' and did master classes for a group of local artists who went on to form BRAG.





















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Original programme see above. I was there.

Some of them visited SF for further experience and now BRAG is a thriving silkscreen crew in their own right, with their own well-appointed studio.

The Brighton show was just one date on a six-city tour that the energetic Chuck and Ron undertook, inspiring local artists and having fun wherever they went.
For full details see their MySpace site.

On the Sunday, at BRAG's studio, Chuck gives a practical demonstration of the silk-screening art. [See below.] They've promised to come back for more next year.

I am a great admirer of Chuck and Ron. They are fantastic communicators, happy to share their hard-won skills with others.

It appears to be largely thanks to them that the art of producing silkscreen music posters for gigs in Britain is being reawakened.

Unknown to most people over here, this tradition of silk-screening music gig posters never died out in America, and continues to this day in cities across the US. Why it died out here is an interesting question.

The explosion of rock posters in the 1960s was a key part of the culture and a powerful art form of the period. Most of these were gig posters, designed to be pasted on walls. But these ephemeral items were so beautifully produced that they quickly became collector's items and originals are now extremely valuable. Many of the surviving poster artists from that period are now selling limited editions of their originals plus new work.