I was particularly interested in going because they had an exhibit called "The Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era."
I'm a total sucker for the 1960's. I love the whole decade. I think it's so awesome that in a span of 10 years you can go from perfecting the art of conversation over fruity cocktails at the tiki bar to burning your bra and tuning in, turning on and dropping out.
I also love anything that has to do with San Francisco.
I was supposed to go to the Whitney a while ago with my great Aunt Barb and I am so glad I didn't because I really don't think she would have enjoyed this exhibit as much as I did.
Cameras aren't allowed in the museum so I am going to do my best to try to tell you about the exhibit as best I can.
When I arrived at the museum there was a line around the block to get in. There were all types of people in line waiting to see the Summer of Love exhibit. Many of them may have actually experienced the 60's firsthand.
Once inside the museum I decided to take the guided audio tour for the full effect. Excellent choice, there was extra commentary and music to go along. I noticed many people couldn't figure out how to work their headsets. I guess they don't know how to read either. The instructions were posted everywhere but on the bathroom wall, seriously.
"Arthur, is your headset working? Mine keeps stopping and starting. I don't get it."
"What I can't hear you Ethel, this music is too loud!"
Thank god for the headset is all I have to say about that.
There were walls filled with concert posters, record covers, flyers and photos. Some I had seen before, some were new to me.
Many of the cases in the room held books, magazines, and newspapers. One case contained about 20 hippie novels.
Every novel was about free love, prostitution, sex, of course drugs. I had no idea that there were actual books written about these things. Like manuals on how to be or become a hippie. It was all so fascinating.
I think the best part of the exhibit was the light shows and movies.
There was one light show in particular that I think was provided by James Whitney, but I could be wrong.
Anyhow, it was so cool I stayed in that dark room for almost an hour watching the screen and listening to music. My eyes hurt a little afterwards.
Another room had pillows on the floor that you sit on. There were 6 panels on the wall with a different light show. All of the panels were moving in time to the Beatles "All You Need Is Love" song. Loved that one.
In another room, where you had to take your shoes off (it smelled like rotten feet in there by the way) there was a black cube with a neon square pattern on each side with a loud siren going. Depending on where you stood/sat the siren sounded different and changed the way the pattern looked.
I could go on with all the light shows, you get the drift. They were totally triptastic.
I also saw this room that I didn't go into because I gotta tell you, it was hard enough getting my shoes off and on the first time, that had all these rainbow colors and shapes where you can sit down and roll around and hang out. Sort of like a psychedelic living room or something.
I saw some great concert photos and still lifes as well as some paintings.
Here are a few of the paintings I saw:
Peter Saul "Saigon" 1967
This photo just doesn't do his work justice so if you want you can check out some more of his work here : http://www.artnet.com/artist/14929/peter-saul.html
Richard Lindner "Ice" 1966
Again, this just doesn't do the guy's work justice so check out some more here:
http://www.rogallery.com/Linder_Richard/rlindnhm.htm
Isaac Abrams "Cosmic Orchid" 1967
Jim Dine "Johnson and Mao" 1967
Then I saw this collection of photos done by Richard Avedon, who is awesome.
I also saw a lot of other cool stuff but I couldn't find any pictures on the Internet to show you.
Ira Cohen's chromogenic color prints, Jimi Hendrix's "Flower Demon" watercolor and some of the posters for Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable.
It was interesting to me that the exhibit neither downplayed, glorified or exploited the use of drugs, particularly the obvious ones like LSD and marijuana, if you want to call that a drug. I mean it talked about how people were trying to make marijuana legal and use LSD to open their minds but it was mostly about the culture and the art and music of that time and how it affected society.
I heard a poem read by Allen Ginsberg and David Peel's song "I like marijuana" which made me laugh out loud.
It was a great day but boy was I pooped afterwards. All that psychedelic-ness in one room. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if I were on drugs!
Just kidding mom :)
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