Own a major chunk of 60's psychedelic Rock history!
A museum-quality* collection of 234 posters with 24K provenance.

The incredible Fillmore & Avalon poster collection of artist (and Funky Features founding partner)..."Funky Paul"

given to me by Bill Graham in 1966 & 1968
from his private collection, and offered for sale AS A SET!

click on posters to enlarge and for more detailed information on history, condition, and value

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THE MAGNIFICENT 1st SEVEN FILLMORE POSTERS

 *The curator of the prestigious Whitney Museum in New York wants to acquire this collection
because he recognizes the historical and artistic importance of it...and the fact that it has remained an integral collection since it was given to me by Bill Graham during that amazing period (a miracle right there! you can't believe where these have been and what they have seen) and has the colorful history it does....making it truly unique and MUCH more prestigious and relevant than ANY OTHER museum collection of these posters in the world.

For instance, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle all have collections of these posters that were acquired piecemeal over many years...so the collections themselves have NO history. That's what makes this one unique and very important in the scheme of things, and that's why the Whitney wants it.

The Whitney Museum cannot afford to acquire my collection (a constant problem for museums) and I would love for this collection to be housed there. If you have a philanthropic side to your nature, I'm sure there is a way to work some kind of creative arrangement with them that would satisfy you as an interested collector and patron of the arts, and allow them to house and display this unique collection. Museums have many clever and attractive ways to do business.*

Please contact me, and I will set it up.


*being crassly practical: a donated collection can be written off, as can trips to visit your collection...and of course the collection would forever bear your name (pretty nice perk right there). You would become a valued member of the Whitney which would lead to many fascinating social events...giving you an entree into New York society that would open many doors. The Whitney say they would like to showcase the collection for a year, then send it around the world for three years to other museums with which they have exchange programs. You would just have to visit your collection in Berlin, or Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or....tough, huh? Oh! And go to parties in all those cities as well. Being a philanthropist can be hard work...but you can do it, can't you???
If I could afford to do it, I would. I would love to be in the position to donate my collection to such a prestigious museum (and go to all those parties!). You'll just have to do it for me and tell me al-l-l-l about it, OK?

All these posters have maintained their original, fully saturated colors....none of them are faded.

 

click below for the galleries....the entire collection will take a minute or two to load

My collection includes the first 108 Fillmore posters with only TEN missing. There are also three miscellaneous Haight events posters in this series, all of them beautiful.  I also have the first TWENTY Avalon posters with only one missing (#6) and 123 in total with only 13 missing from the Avalon Ballroom/Family Dog series. I will provide written, signed provenance, and be happy to sign the reverse side of each attesting that these posters are from my collection that was given to me by Bill. My signature on each will add to their value.

This collection is part of a set of approximately 260 Fillmore and Avalon posters given to me by Bill Graham in 1966 and 1968 (some of which I have lost or given away...so I have 234 in total) from his own collection in trade for several sets of my company's posters (Funky Features) which included my "A Day in the Life" and the very popular "Light My Fire," which is a rendering of my late partner, Funky Sam and his also late wife, Jan (see below). I've included the reference Polaroid I took of them in 1966 in the front room of the famous Funky Features house at 142 Central in the Haight-Ashbury. The Light My Fire poster was the most sold image of all time, apparently...it was ripped off by poster companies all over the world. Rephotographed counterfeit copies turned up everywhere.

 

Funky Sam & Jan

 

light my fire

A Day in the Life

(click either poster for more info and to enlarge)

This is a truly unique and extremely valuable collection that will certainly appreciate in value.* There's only one, and this is it.

Janis Joplin spilled Southern Comfort on one poster, and in England Jimi Hendrix's road manager, "H," used to hanker after my
"flying eyeball" Hendrix poster, as did Jimmy McCulloch, John Mayall's guitarist (Mayall was on that bill with Hendrix).

just a few examples from the collection

These posters have been exhibited in the famous Funky Features house in the Haight-Ashbury during that wonderful time (it's a wonder I've still got 'em!!), and in my home nearby, then "swinging" London where they were appreciated and envied by many of the top English musos of the period, then exhibited in my home in Silverlake which is where Richie Valens recorded the demo for "Come on Let's Go," the actual "Donna," and also "La Bamba." I lived in that house ten years before I found out! Many of the posters were displayed in my studio downstairs which is where Richie recorded. The house has since been torn down, sadly (see "bio" for pictures and more info). The posters were then kept flat in my architectural plan drawers for the past 12 years in London and Los Angeles. Ted Owen, the auctioneer at Bonham's in Chelsea Harbour (London) who specializes in 60's San Francisco artwork (who sells most of Rick Griffin's Grateful Dead originals and has also sold many of my Funky Features posters) about fainted when I told him of my collection and begged me to put my whole collection up for auction in a spectacular special show. But I don't want to break up the set, and would rather see this collection go to the Whitney, if at all possible.

I met Bill Graham in late 1965 while he was managing the San Francisco Mime Troupe and I was doing high visibility art events and making a name for myself as an artist in San Francisco. I realized immediately that his posters would be collectors' items one day, and so made a deal with him before even he realized how valuable they would be. He brought over the first 35 or 40 posters in late 66 to the Funky Features house, then topped up my collection in 1968 with the more recent ones from his collection. I've lost some over the years, hence I only have the first seven as an unbroken set out of 111 '66, '67, and early '68 Fillmore posters given to me by Bill. I also have 121 Avalon/Family Dog posters from the same era including all the Rick Griffin classic corkers. Yes, even the famous Fillmore "flying eyeball" Hendrix/Mayall poster in perfect condition.....probably the greatest psychedelic poster of all time.

*I have just released a mass-market book, "The Book of Love," and am currently writing "The Book of Haight," (the title suggested by that great rock singer and composer, and long-time friend who spent many zany weeks at the Funky Features house in the Whiter Shade of Pale 60's---Gary Brooker) about my colorful experiences during that wonderful time. I'm also writing a screenplay about my experiences which an agent friend says she can sell as soon as I finish it. When "The Book of Haight" comes out, these posters will be even more valuable, and when the movie of the book, "Funky Features" comes out, they'll increase again.

 

This collection is unlike any such collection in the world that will ever become available, because of its history. Remember, these were given to me by Bill back then, and have a colorful past of being shown and seen by many famous people of the period (Janis Joplin--who spilled whiskey on one of them, Peter Albin, Jerry Garcia, Robin Trower, Gary Brooker, Steve Miller, Grace Slick, Jack Cassidy, Sonny Barger, Freewheelin' Frank, etc), and written about and photographed for the media during that time. The goings-on in the Funky Features house where these were displayed are legendary, and that alone adds a psychedelic aspect to their provenance and history that you can almost feel as you look at them....think of where they have been and what they have seen! (just about everything from that period of free love, drugs, and rock 'n roll you can imagine...all described in my forthcoming book, "The Book of Haight"). As the curator of the Whitney Museum stated, "I'll bet you can almost SMELL it!" He's right. That's why he's curator.

The posters were displayed AGAIN in the early 70's in my flat in London on Portobello Road and then my second flat in Barnes, around the corner from Olympic Studios where the Stones and just about everybody else recorded, where many more famous English muso's hung out and played in the same room, and where one of the world's first rock videos with Ronnie Hawkins--"Down in the Alley"--was filmed in early 1970, with ALL these posters featured (that's why they wanted to use my room). This famous collection therefore belongs in a museum, or with someone who can display a museum-quality collection of unique images with a unique history. See "BIO" for details.

There will never be another chance at such a unique collection!

Click on the Fillmore and Avalon collection list above for more info and enlargements of each poster, plus read the "value" link above and the "bio" link below for additional information which I think you will enjoy, and which will enhance your appreciation of this collection and why it is so unique and important.

You can contact me with an offer by whacking this annoying thing   I am also available for film title design, scriptwriting assignments, fine art commissions, website design, and quality art & design projects (I'm located in LA).  Enjoy your visit!!

For safety and confidence, the transaction will take place at the Universal City Bank of America, next to Universal Studios in LA where the posters are stored. I'll even take you to lunch! (how do you like your burger???)

 


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