Bill Graham Presents #254

Name/Title

Bill Graham Presents #254

Type of Print

Lithograph

Collection

Rock Posters Collection

Made/Created

Artist

Singer, David

Manufacturer

Tea Lautrec Litho

Date made

1970

Notes

Artist's Gender: M

Dimensions

Height

21 in

Width

14 in

Copyright

Copyright Holder

Graham, Bill

Copyright Date

1970

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Object Label

Label

When Singer created this photomontage poster in 1970, America had just won the space race in 1969 with their famous moon landing. The cultural impact of the space race on American culture was still very deep. NASA sold the moon landing to the world through interviews with the astronauts, advertisements, and products, boosting morale and support. When the moon landing was achieved, it was also a win in the Cold War with Soviet Russia. The influx of patriotism rippled into the art world. Singer included photographic elements that very well could have come from these promotional materials and intertwined them into surreal scenes, creating an adventurous dream-like scenarios that connect space travels and psychedelic trips. In the arms of the astronaut is a monkey, which references the effort and sacrifices it took to successfully send a man to the moon.

Label Type

Artist Bio

Label

David Singer was born and raised in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, surrounded by the Pennsylvania Dutch culture. He was exposed to very intricate folk art, and David Singer gravitated towards it. From an early age, Singer was very creative, and artistically gifted. After he graduated high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served until 1964, then settled in San Francisco. After working many odd jobs, Singer found himself meeting with Bill Graham, the founder and promoter of the iconic Fillmore West music venue, to review his portfolio. After twenty minutes of silently studying Singers’ work, Graham immediately commissioned Singer to create twelve new posters. This launched his career with full force—David Singer was commissioned the most work out of all of the iconic Fillmore West Rock poster artists, creating a total of sixty posters for Bill Graham between 1969-1971.