Revolution in the Head

​Bonnie Maclean was born in 1939 in Philadelphia, her work is highly recognizable for the years of the 1960’s and 1970’s psychedelic ‘hippy’ art movement. She produced posters for a wide variety of entertainment, clubs, concerts, live events and more. Maclean worked with a group of other artists during her time creating rock-band posters through her husband (at the time) Bill Graham’s organization.  She was a girl in the ‘boys’ club but that didn’t get in the way when it came to creating her own style.
The organization that Bonnie ended up being a part of was the Filmore Auditorium, she spent her time to begin with painting notice boards in the swirling psychedelic style, with the notice of her talent Bill Graham promoted her to Art Director when Wes Wilson left the organization due to a quarrel with Graham. 

This detail is rather important when you view the two artists work, Maclean’s work in my opinion has a clear relationship with the work of Wes Wilson. Her work has similar influences such as the use of feathers to create a flowing effect over one of her pieces of work, with a similar resemblance in Wes Wilson’s. I also note a similar lay out and imagery, mainly consisting of just faces of people usually women such as the study of the few below, in my opinion Bonnie is influenced by Wilsons use of traditional symbols and ‘medieval’ looking designs which reflects historical patterns, this can be seen in her poster design with a strong traditional and Celtic vibe that features in the background. Although both artists have their own creative style, it is possible to notice the influence Wes had on Maclean, especially when his poster designs were more detailed and illustrative rather than his looser lined posters. 


https://www.classicposters.com/artist/bonnie-maclean
https://wearecomet.com/1960s-psychedelic-tribute-calendar-bonnie-maclean/
https://www.bahrgallery.com/artist-master/bonnie-maclean
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Bonnie Maclean

Wes Wilson