ART ATTACK
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Your support makes all the difference.Paying tribute to the 30th anniversary of the "Summer of Love", Bonhams Chelsea is staging its own commemorative love-in with a resplendent sale of `High Art' - vintage rock'n'roll posters by the leading psychedelic artists of London and San Francisco. Throughout the Sixties these posters served as advertisements for rock bands and hippie events, but today they are collected as artwork that captures the spirit of a revered decade.
You don't have to have "been there" to know the art work as their posters are instantly recognisable through the bands they promoted. The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles are among the groups represented in technicolour glory. The original artwork for Rick Griffin's famous Flying Eyeball (see cover), which first appeared on the poster for Jimi Hendrix's 1968 concert in San Francisco is tipped to reach a staggering pounds 90,000. At the thriftier end of the market, serious Acid casualties will be captivated by design group Funky Features' "black light" posters decorated with day-glo images of goblins and enchanted castles on fuzzy-felt backgrounds. Made to be displayed under ultraviolet light, they adorned the walls at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom in its heyday (Funky Features posters expected to go for approx pounds 100).
If the Bonham's sale proves too cosmic, Sotheby's is offering a different sort of nostalgia in the shape of illustrations created for The Roald Dahl Treasury, a comprehensive collection of Dahl's children's stories. Proceeds from the sale go to the Roald Dahl Foundation, a charity devoted to developing literacy in children. Drawings by Dahl's main illustrator, Quentin Blake, are up for sale along with work by Babette Cole, Raymond Briggs, Ralph Steadman, and Posy Simmonds. The centrepiece is Steadman's drawing featuring a photo of Dahl's writing shed, set in mushroom fields watched over by a giant spider (above).
Bonhams, 16 Sept: Lots Rd, London SW10 (0171-393 3906); Sotheby's, 24 Sept: Bond St, London W1(0171-408 5826) FS
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