History
Born in San Francisco, psychedelic art was mainly a reflection of the 1960s American Youth culture. Best described by Otto Wagner’s famous term gesamtkunstwerk (meaning the total work of art), psychedelic art connotes the return of the hippie movement.
Born in San Francisco, psychedelic art was mainly a reflection of the 1960s American Youth culture. Best described by Otto Wagner’s famous term gesamtkunstwerk (meaning the total work of art), psychedelic art connotes the return of the hippie movement.
Psychedelia got pretty mainstream after it was being used by trendsetters in the merchandising business. It was used in newspapers, posters, clothing, jewelry, furniture and auto mobiles. It got so famous, it spreaded throughout America and eventually Europe.
Early psychedelia were literary rather than visual. The latter being quite surrealist-inspired.
What is Psychedelic art?
The word psychedelic simply means mind manifesting.
It is a prolific and colurful art form that depicts images mainly influenced by the hallucinogenic effects of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, Mescaline and Psilocybin (Magic mushroom).
Features of Psychedelic art:
- Fantastic, metaphysical and surrealistic subject matter
- Kaleidoscopic, fractal or dizzy patterns
- Bright and highly contrasting colours
- Morphing of objects
- Phosphenes, spirals, concentric circles
- Repetition of motifs
- Innovative typography and hand-lettering
- Warping and transposition of positive and negative spaces
Labels: Psychedelic
