Radical Trips: Exploring the Political Dimension and Context of the 1960s Psychedelic Poster

"Are We Next? Be Aware" intones the jarring poster, offering a disturbing suggestion of a parallel between the U.S. government and that of Nazi Germany (see Figure 1). Bold, powerful, and succinct—it is iconic political poster art. Designed by Wes Wilson in mid-1965, not long after the first U.S. troops arrived in Vietnam, the poster conjoins its ominous query, or warning, with an unsettling conflation of the stars and stripes with the swastika. It was intended to provoke. With this image, we are introduced to one of the pioneers of the nascent Psychedelic Poster Movement in San Francisco. Having trained in a print shop and possessing strong political views and concerns about U.S. policy, Wilson created this poster to distribute at antiwar events. Though most famous for his concert posters, Wilson's career began here, with artwork made for protest. His art would unite these two realms, heralding both political events and rock concerts, not unlike the band Country Joe and the Fish, who straddled the lines between radical politics and art and music, playing protest rallies, the Avalon Ballroom, and even art openings.¹ The fact that Wilson's first poster was a self-produced work of great political provocation reveals how closely tied to political concerns were many of the artists of this new psychedelic poster revolution.

Figure 1.

Wes Wilson. Are We Next? Be Aware. 1965. Offset lithograph.

Wilson originally designed "Are We Next?" in red and white, without the blue field for the stars. It was simpler and more understated than the final version. The tri-color poster is bolder in its conjuring of the flag, upping the ante in terms of political commentary, as Old Glory is overtly and provocatively fused with the Nazi swastika. The query "Are We Next?" pushes it from commentary to call to arms, particularly as it was first displayed at an antiwar rally in Berkeley in the early autumn of 1965. While equally cogent in regard to the horrors witnessed in the South's deeply rooted racism and all-too-frequently violent responses to 1964's Freedom Summer, the most obvious point of reference here is the Vietnam War and U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia. Wilson's poster asks, "Are We Next?"—a question that might be read two ways. The first and most obvious is, of course, the concern that American foreign and domestic policies had become fascistic. But, for young men, it had another chilling side: that they might be "next" in the draft selection. As the draft expanded, so too did the relevancy of the poster. Wilson credits West Coast Litho pressman Ivor Powell with the idea to add the question, making it more forceful and engaging.² While Allen Ginsberg found it to be "too paranoid," Chet Helms saw the poster's power and was inspired to contact Wilson to make concert posters for the Family Dog in early 1966. Though not a deeply psychedelic design, it is the poster that launched not only Wilson's career, but helped initiate the entire flowering of the poster movement in the San Francisco area. Given the history of the poster's function as propaganda, it hardly surprises that such strong political statements were part of the very birth of the Psychedelic Poster Movement.

As the first major figure in the San Francisco Psychedelic Poster Movement, Wes Wilson both pioneered the style and was its principal poster child in the media during its early years.³ Many central characteristics of the psychedelic poster developed significantly, though not exclusively, through Wilson's hand. While "Are We Next? Be Aware" is not fully psychedelic, it might be seen as one of two key posters of the summer of 1965 that began the Psychedelic Poster Movement.⁴ The other is "The Seed," by George Hunter and Michael Ferguson, generally regarded as the first artistically inclined rock poster.⁵ In these two images—one political, one recreative—we see the emerging artistic and cultural–political forces that...