Iconic Psychedelic Poster Set of The Beatles Photographed by Richard Avedon

Description

Iconic 1960s Psychedelic Full-Color Poster Set of The Beatles
Vintage
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison photographed in 1967 by Richard Avedon (
American, 1923 - 2004
).
High quality prints with bright colors and minor creasing from a limited edition 1 album (2000) poster, each piece measures approximately 7.75 inches wide by 9.75 inches tall, mounted smoothly on ~0.5 inch thick MDF, ready to hang with screw eyes, steel wire, and felt feet.
From an advertisement for the Look editions of the posters:
Put wow on the wall! ... Flame-bright John... Flower-power Paul... Mystic George... Dove-loving Ringo. All photographed for LOOK by Richard Avedon... Like the Big Four themselves, they're kicks, a happening, an art form, a chest thump. Get them and believe.
Historical Background:
Although Richard Avedon’s celebrated fashion photographs have graced the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Life, the artist primarily referred to himself as a portrait photographer. Avedon’s fashion shots are profoundly dramatic and dynamic, often capturing the model in motion. Along with his own acquaintances and various ordinary people, Avedon took photographs of celebrities, politicians, and other public figures ranging from Bertrand Russell to Marilyn Monroe. In both his commercial assignments and his portrait work, Avedon’s meticulous approach and penetrating gaze sought to capture the essence of each unique subject and moment in time. In addition to working within the world of fashion, Richard Avedon lent his photographic talents to civil rights and rock posters.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein commissioned Richard Avedon to photograph the band and design a set of posters that would visually capture the new psychedelic direction of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. Following the shoot at a penthouse in Thompson House, 200 Gray's Inn Road, London on 11th August 1967, Avedon distorted four of the polarized images with day-glo overlays and symbolic attributes. The photographs were first published in the 9th January 1968 edition of the USA magazine Look, and the posters distributed simultaneously by Look magazine in the USA, Varagids in Holland, the Daily Express in the UK, and Stern Magazine in Germany, together with a black and white banner poster of the band which became known as the Mount Rushmore poster. With a pullout / pull-out order form which described the four posters as Flame Bright John, Flower Power Paul, Mystic George and Dove Loving Ringo, American fans could send away for individual posters at .50 each or a full set for .95. Archetypal of the "Flower Power" era, the posters have become seminal images of the late 1960s, transcending the world of music memorabilia and appealing to collectors of fine art, fashion photography, and design alike. Although originally printed in a large open edition, few survive in unused condition. An example of the Look magazine set is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Avedon sold the copyrights of both the photos he took that day and his psychedelic embellishments executed in post production, to NEMS Enterprises, Ltd. - a firm run by the Beatles music manager Brian Epstein. Avedon relinquished all rights, but collected royalties under the now defunct Richard Avedon Posters, Inc. On Aug 27, 1967, sixteen days after Avedon’s Beatles photo session, Beatles manager Brian Epstein died from an overdose. The Beatles were shocked. By strange twist of fate, the Beatles were attending Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s meditation seminar at Bangor, North Wales. The guru they had just met in London became a substitute for their use of psychedelics and a cushion for their bereavement. Avedon, unknowingly to the Beatles, or even himself, had captured this true spiritual essence just weeks before.