The Mamas & The Papas: Saladin Productions Black Light Poster by Artist Robert Wendell (1967)

The Mamas & The Papas: Saladin Productions Black Light Poster by Artist Robert Wendell (1967)

Famed American graphic artist Robert ‘Bob’ Wendell first dabbled in consumer marketing materials for major corporations in the early 1960s, including Quaker Oats and Pepsi Cola, before turning his talents to the emerging rock scene that was driving so much of the youth culture by the mid-1960s.

Wendell designed a series of psychedelic concert posters featuring some of the top rock and folk groups of the time, employing a technique that turned the images into what’s colloquial known as ‘blacklight’ art. The ink used in these posters react to UV blacklights and cause the related imagery to ‘pop’ or ‘glow’ under such light.

In 1965, The Mamas & The Papas had turned America on to the fine art of California Dreamin’, an homage by band leader John Phillips to the Golden State through a tune that has the brisk chill of a winter’s day blowing through it, and the song reinforced California’s image of an American Mecca to which a pilgrimage was required.

Wendell selected Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliot for this 1967 headshop blacklight poster that instantly became a classic.

Dimensions: Thirteen inches horizontally, Twenty inches vertically (13 x 20”)

Condition: Excellent