Art of Rock

This work tells the story of rock music, rock culture and rock graphics in 300 posters dating from 1955 to 1987. Based on Abbeville's "Art of Rock", the tiny folio reproduces in a miniature format the history of rock posters from the earliest wood block graphics to the psychedelic designs of the punk era. The posters represent exceptional graphic achievements and create a record of international culture. Rock posters are, arguably, great modern art. Unlike high art forms, these print advertisements are truly popular: they are collected by thousands of people. Once avaliable for less than a pound, now the price of original art-drawings, paintings, and artist mechanicals for these posters can exceed #500. As rock and its fans have aged, the number of rock-art collectors has grown. Now these innovative, electric, and vital images are available in a single volume that chronicles a 30-year visual history not only of the music but of the world that produced it.
Author, collector, connoisseur and life-long rock fan Paul Grushkin provides a rollicking tour of 300 beautifully reproduced rock posters designed for legendary artists from Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and the Beatles to Bob Dylan, Jim Morrisson and the Grateful Dead, to Bruce Springsteen, Blondie and the Talking Heads.