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Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company

Object Details

Exhibition Label
Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company
When Texas-born singer Janis Joplin (1943-1970) joined the San Francisco band Big Brother and the Holding Company, she propelled the group to the top of the rock scene. A passionate, bluesy singer with a raw, powerful voice, Joplin electrified audiences with her sexualized performance style, delivered with explosive movements and a variety of wailing, whispering, and shrieking sounds. Before her tragic death of a drug overdose at age twenty-seven, Joplin had become a female rock icon. This 1967 advertisement for Big Brother's appearance at a club called the Matrix was designed by Victor Moscoso, a pioneer and master of the psychedelic rock poster. Discarding his extensive art training at the Cooper Union in New York and at Yale, Moscoso produced some of the boldest advertising of the era, enlivened with searing, clashing colors and deliberately illegible lettering.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Artist
Victor Moscoso, born 1936
Copy after
Lisa Bachelis Law
Printer
Neon Rose
Sitter
Samuel Andrew, 18 Dec 1941 - 12 Feb 2015
James Gurley, 22 Dec 1939 - 20 Dec 2009
Peter Albin, born 1944
David Getz, born 1938
Janis Joplin, 19 Jan 1943 - 4 Oct 1970
Date
1967
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jack Banning
Medium
Color lithographic poster
Dimensions
Image: 49 x 33.5cm (19 5/16 x 13 3/16")
Sheet: 50.8 x 35cm (20 x 13 3/4")
Mat size: custom (TBD)
Type
Print

Featured In

  • Rock and Roll Music
  • The Art of Rock and Roll
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