Concert posters are rocky history’s visuals

Visitors to Jack Gallery in the Farmers Market Plaza might glimpse “trails” and hear keening guitars when they view a new exhibit of lithographs of late-’60s psychedelic-era concert posters that’s set to open Wednesday.

“The Family Dog Presents ‘The Art That Defined a Generation’ ” features the work of the San Francisco 5 -- Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso -- who created large, colorful images trumpeting performances by Big Brother & the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, among others.

The designs -- an inspired combination of Art Nouveau, the poster art of Toulouse-Lautrec and the hot-rod art of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth -- have found their way into collections at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Louvre and the Tate Gallery.

Rhino Entertainment bought the rights to the artworks from the entrepreneurial collective known as the Family Dog, formerly run by the late Chet Helms, and is mounting the exhibit with the gallery, the artists and S2 Editions.

Eighteen limited-edition remastered lithographs are for sale.

“Rhino handles the Grateful Dead [catalog], and through that relationship we became aware of the Family Dog,” said Gregg Goldman, executive vice president of Rhino Entertainment.

The deal that Rhino made to acquire the images will financially benefit not just the label and the Family Dog but also the visual artists and the musical acts, Goldman said. But money was never a key consideration for the artists.

“The posters were always works of love,” said Mouse, co-creator with Kelley of the Grateful Dead’s iconic logo, a skeleton with roses, who plans to attend the opening of the exhibit with the two other surviving artists, Wilson and Moscoso.

“There was no other advertising except the posters at the time, so maybe we’d do 1,000, maybe 3,000, in one run,” Mouse said.

The exhibit runs through July 14.

-- Casey Dolan