• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Membership
  • Join

The Rock Poster Society

The Rock Poster Society (TRPS)

  • Artists
  • Rock Art By The Bay
  • Festival of Rock Posters
  • Atlanta Rock Poster Show
  • Mystery Tube
  • Resources

Bonnie MacLean, 1939-2020

February 12, 2020 By Ben Marks 1 Comment

Bonnie MacLean, BG-66
BG-66, June 2-3, 1967, by Bonnie MacLean

Though it’s only February, this year has already been a rough one for those of us who love rock posters. In January, of course, we lost Wes Wilson. Today, we learned that earlier this month, Bonnie MacLean passed at the age of 80.

As many have noted, MacLean was a rare woman in the boy’s club that was, and largely still is, the rock-poster world. But MacLean’s place in rock-poster history is about more than her gender. That’s because it was a Bonnie MacLean poster, BG-66, that kicked off Bill Graham’s long and productive relationship with Levon Mosgofian and Tea Lautrec Litho.

Technically, we have to say that the first poster Mosgofian printed for Graham occurred when Mosgofian was still employed at a traditional printing firm called Neal, Stratford & Kerr, which was struggling in 1967. In fact, by the Summer of Love, the company had already closed its stationery division as part of its preparation for bankruptcy. It was at this unpropitious moment that Graham hired Neal, Stratford & Kerr to print a poster, designed by MacLean, for a pair of shows on Friday June 2 and Saturday June 3 at the Fillmore Auditorium. Headliners were the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, a folk-rock outfit from L.A. called the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, and a group called The Sparrow, which was led by John Kay and reorganized as Steppenwolf later that year. Dimensions were 14 by 23 inches, a bit taller than many Fillmore posters from this period.

MacLean’s central image featured the head and upper torso of a woman, whose gaze was serious and whose skin was the color of daffodils. Surrounding this psychedelic siren (in MacLean’s hands, the women in her rock posters were always more than mere objects for men to admire) was a loose composition of blue-and-green shapes and swirls. As rock posters of this era went, certainly compared to some of Wes Wilson’s work, the last of which, BG-62, had been delivered just the month before, the lettering was remarkably legible. A few days later, June 11, 1967, MacLean and Graham would marry.

Thank you for your work and presence, Bonnie. You will be sorely missed.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Bonnie MacLean

Subscribe to TRPS Email Announcements

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dutch Watazychyn says

    March 13, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Thank you Ben…

    Very respectfully and lovingly put.

    Dutch

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Atlanta Rock Poster Show, Feb. 18, 2023
  • New Book on British Light Shows Shines
  • A Look Back at TRPS Festival of Rock Posters, 2022
  • Festival of Rock Posters, 2022: What To Know Before You Go
  • Conscious Alliance at Festival of Rock Posters, 2022

Become a TRPS Member

Sign Up!

trpsorg

9,998

trpsorg

View

Feb 8

Open
Posted @withregram • @halfhazardpress New print from Joel for Railroad Earth‘s winter tour! You can grab a print at the merch booth if you are at the shows! APs will go on sale at a later date. 

#posterart #design #blono #screenprinting #midwestartist

Posted @withregram • @halfhazardpress New print from Joel for Railroad Earth‘s winter tour! You can grab a print at the merch booth if you are at the shows! APs will go on sale at a later date.

#posterart #design #blono #screenprinting #midwestartist
...

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Topics

Trip in the Archives

Footer

TRPS logo by Dave Hunter © The Rock Poster Society
Contact
PO Box 20309
Oakland, CA 94620

Twitter
Facebook
Facebook Group
Instagram
LinkedIn
LinkedIn Group
YouTube

Become a TRPS Member

Use of this site signifies your agreement to the PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

© 2008–2023 The Rock Poster Society. All Rights Reserved. · Log in

 

Loading Comments...