File talk:New Blues Interchange at Cedric's Cellar, 1967.jpg

Artist

This poster is very similar. It would make it by Wes Wilson. reference, and reference biog with several similar posters. Broichmore (talk) 15:19, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

@Broichmore: not sure what you mean. If you are referring to https://i0.wp.com/www.classicposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/FD-84wm.jpg?w=400&ssl=1 on that page, the only similarity is the style and era. Entirely different images. Or did you mean some other image? - Jmabel ! talk 22:40, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

@Jmabel: Something awry there. I've changed the link to the poster, I actually meant to point too. This one. Think it's strong enough for our image to be attributed to Wilson, at the least. Thanks for pointing it out. Broichmore (talk) 09:45, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

@Broichmore: sorry, but I think that conclusion shows a lack of familiarity with the style and the number of artists who worked in it, like looking at a Juan Gris and being sure it must be by Picasso. This was an ad for a bar in a working class neighborhood of Seattle, and you are saying that it was done by an artist from San Francisco because the work looks similar. In 1967, when this dates from, several dozen West Coast poster artists were working in a sort of cranked-up version of Art Nouveau. There's even a book called Split Fountain Hieroglyphics specifically about the Seattle artists who worked in that style.

This particular piece is unusually angular, in a style that tended to be more flowing. I don't thing I've ever seen that angularity in any of Wilson's work, but I'll admit that I'm not more than passingly familiar with him. But certainly not enough here specific to him rather than the genre to justify an attribution. Jmabel ! talk 17:18, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Seattle was then and now in orbit of the SF scene. Rare, yes, but not out of bounds. The artist was known to provide work for specific bands, and take commisions. This print is sufficiently close, as to hint the work could be the same hand. This one, is perhaps close too in some respects. The style was developing and this may be early. It's not a lost cause, though perhaps derivative.. Broichmore (talk) 10:29, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

@Broichmore: it's not like this was some major concert, likely to pay for a known artist from out of town. This was a weekly residency at a club in Ballard.

Wes Wilson has a good deal of lettering somewhat similar to this image, but I think if you examine his work carefully you can see that when he did lettering like this, he was pretty consistent about how he formed certain particular letters, and it wasn't like this. Look closely at the work displayed at https://www.classicposters.com/artist/wes-wilson/?page=2 (look especially at the letters "G" and "E"). - Jmabel ! talk 17:16, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Would you be happy with style / similar to ,school of, or derivative of? Broichmore (talk) 18:10, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

I still say we need a category for this whole "school", and I realize Wes Wilson was "present at the creation", but I've never heard anyone describe them collectively as "school of Wes Wilson". In San Francsico there were also (among others) Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Alton Kelley, Bonnie MacLean (and come to think of it, this looks at least as much like her work as Wilson's if not more so) and in Seattle at least John Moerhing and George Eagle. It's remarkable how little art historians and graphic design people have written about this style; it's really hard to find secondary sources that aren't engaged in buying and selling the works in question. - Jmabel ! talk 23:39, 21 January 2024 (UTC)