The Byrds: Saladin Productions Black Light Poster by Artist Robert Wendell (1967)

The Byrds: 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.

By 1967, The Byrds had grown to one of the most important American rock bands at the helm of the counterculture scene, playing such iconic venues as The Hollywood Bowl and in June 1967 pulled off the back-to-back feat of playing the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in front of 36,000 fans gathered at Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais and then just a week later took the stage at The Monterey International Pop Festival, the watershed event that many considered the formal announcement of the Summer of Love.

As he had for other notable groups, Wendell selected The Byrds for this 1967 headshop blacklight poster. The image is notable for its lineup of Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Michael Clark and David Crosby, as by 1967 Gene Clark had left the band over his fear of flying.

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

Condition: Excellent