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Presented in partnership with The Chambers Project and The Griffin Estate, 1xRUN is excited to offer these extremely rare editions in limited quantities.
This limited edition bronze was sculpted by Jud Bergeron
and based on the original poster illustration from 1968 by Rick
Griffin.
In 1968 Rick Griffin produced his epic poster masterpiece of symbolic
iconography, ‘The Flying Eyeball’, in a burst of inspiration. The image
has arguably become the most recognizable and evocative image of the
psychedelic 60s, being to Psychedelic Art what Warhol’s soup tin is to
Pop Art – an instant identifier for the age of Acid Rock.
The Winged Eye symbol has its origins in antiquity, appearing in the
art of the Egyptians and Assyrians. Rick particularly venerated the late
1950s’ version, that of famed lowbrow artist Von Dutch, whose
interpretation resonated with the roots of hot-rod culture, so central
to Rick’s Southern California upbringing. Von’s Flying Eye was
stylistically informed by traditional American tattooing and car culture
and he may also have been exposed to this image as nose art on WWII
USAAF airplanes, an art form that influenced decorative automobile art
in the post-war period.
Rick would also have been aware of the esoteric traditions and
origins of the Eye In The Sky, aka The Sun Disc or God’s Eye, the
all-seeing eye that burns through the clouds of Illusion. As a visual
pun it also represents the self (the ‘I’), as well as the personal power
that comes with spiritual awareness. With added wings, it evokes the
effect that LSD had on the visual field, part of the expanded state of
consciousness that many were experiencing at that time.
Read more about this special edition at
News.1xRUN.com...
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Rick Griffin was an American artist and one of the leading designers of
psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground
comix movement, his work appeared regularly in Zap Comix. Griffin was
closely identified with the Grateful Dead, designing some of their
best-known posters and album covers such as Aoxomoxoa. His work within
the surfing subculture included both film posters and his comic strip,
Murphy.
While attending Nathaniel Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area
of Los Angeles, he produced numerous surfer drawings, which led to his
surfing comic strip, "Murphy" for Surfer magazine in 1961, with
Griffin's character featured on the front cover the following year. In
1964, he left Surfer and briefly attended Chouinard Art Institute (now
CalArts), where he met his future wife, artist Ida Pfefferle.
That same year, he hung out with the group of artists and musicians
known as the Jook Savages. He traveled with Ida on a Mexican surfing
trip and later planned a move to San Francisco after seeing the
psychedelic rock posters designed by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. In
late 1966, the couple arrived in San Francisco, where they first lived
in their van before moving to Elsie Street in the Bernal Heights
district.
In the mid-1960s, he participated in Ken Kesey's Acid Tests. His first
art exhibition was for the Jook Savages, celebrating the one-year
anniversary of the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street. Organizers for the
Human Be-In saw his work and asked him to design a poster for their
January 1967 event. Chet Helms was also impressed by Griffin's work and
asked him to design posters for the Family Dog dance concerts at the
Avalon Ballroom, which led Griffin to create concert posters for the
Charlatans. In 1967, Griffin, Kelley, Mouse, Victor Moscoso and Wes
Wilson teamed as the founders of Berkeley Bonaparte, a company that
created and marketed psychedelic posters. Griffin returned to Southern
California in 1969, eventually settling in San Clemente.
