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SALT LAKE CITY -- Baseball cards, stamps, coins: just a few of the things that people collect as a hobby. Some of these items can be quite valuable, depending on their age and condition. We found a Utah art dealer who's onto something else that has caught on, and collectors are lining up.
First, let's turn back the clock to the ‘60s: hippies, Woodstock, anti-Vietnam War protests and psychedelic rock music! The nation changed a lot during that time, the music scene especially.
Scott Tilson is president of Psychedelic Art Exchange, the premier dealer in Classic 1960's Rock Concert Posters. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and "Them" all in bright, psychedelic colors promoting the Bay Area concerts during the height of the hippy movement.
"These posters were issued before these live concert events, and they were posted all over town: on telephone poles, store windows, bus stops," Tilson said.
The posters were printed in small quantities, usually under 1,000. Many ended up taped or thumb tacked to someone's bedroom wall, but a handful, in mint condition, survived and are now a desirable item for collectors as well as investors.
"Especially now with the stock market being so volatile, there's a tremendous amount of people who are turning toward tangible assets," Tilson said.
Many of Tilson's clients grew up in the ‘60s and just want a bit of nostalgia to hang on the wall. He has a waiting list of people, worldwide, who are willing to pay more than $10,000 for one of these.
"This art is considered folk art. It was created, not to be a collectible, not to be art at all, but really as an advertisement for a live event," Tilson said.
Psychedelic art has certainly come a long way in the past four decades. It's now considered "mainstream" and is regularly featured in exhibits at major art museums around the country.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
