Homegrown: Austin Music Posters, 1967 to 1982

Poster for The Golden Dawn & The Thingies at the Vulcan Gas Company, © 1967, Gilbert Shelton

JANUARY 12 – JULY 3, 2015
HOMEGROWN Austin Music Posters, 1967 to 1982

Poster artists in the late sixties, seventies, and early eighties visually evoked the sound and defined the culture of Austin just as the city was establishing itself as one of the most vital music scenes in the country. More than 140 vintage pieces from the Wittliff's archive of Tom Wilmore and other generous donors document this history and testify to Texas artists’ mastery of the poster form using hand drawings and creative print techniques. Distinct generations of design are vividly illustrated—psychedelic art of the Vulcan Gas Company, early works from the Armadillo World Headquarters, an emerging variety of styles from the mid-1970s, and the radical visual aesthetic of punk—produced by such renowned artists as Gilbert Shelton, Jim Franklin, Kerry Awn, Micael Priest, Danny Garrett, Guy Juke, Ken Featherston, and NOXX. Homegrown—the title of the exhibition and the accompanying catalog, new in the Wittliff book series (University of Texas Press)—emphasizes the Texas-inspired sensibility of these vintage posters and the close-knit community of Austin artists who created them.