When it comes to the drugs that have shaped modern art, LSD is a prolific muse.
Despite being relatively new in terms of psychedelics, where many entheogens can be traced back to the dawn of humanity, its impact on art and the aesthetic of psychedelia rivals its ancient counterparts.
This is not because LSD produces a better psychedelic experience or translates to art better than entheogens do, but because culturally LSD was pioneered in the 1960s by a group of affluent white men like Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley who were moving in the highest circles of society. They had access to media attention and knew how to navigate the landscape of this budding countercultural movement as it clashed with the conservative constructs at that time. Thus, LSD had an immediate impact on mainstream art, thought, and music in a way that entheogens from Indigenous cultures did not.
That said, LSD is an awesome drug that has inspired a ton of incredible art, much of which is linked to psychedelic music in the form of album art and concert posters. Even the blotter sheets that acid comes on have become their own meta-genre.
READ: How to Create Trippy, Psychedelic Art
From the early work of Mati Klarwein and Rick Griffin to modern day disciples like Alex Grey and Mars-1, LSD continues to inspire artists to push the boundaries of our reality, challenging the illusory battlelines of censorship to this day. Unlike other types of trippy contemporary art, most openly LSD-centric work exists outside the zeitgeist of fine art, often found within the confines of private collections and small galleries as opposed to major museums and donor-funded institutions.
The History of LSD Art
LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) was synthesized by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938. He was researching lysergic acid derivatives, a compound found in the ergot fungus that grows on rye and other grains. After synthesizing LSD-25, he set it aside due to a perceived lack of worthwhile qualities.
Five years later, Hofmann accidentally absorbed a small amount of LSD-25 through his fingertips, first experiencing its effects. Three days later, on April 19th, 1943, he ingested 250 micrograms and took a bike ride. LSD as we know it was born, with Hoffman immediately recognizing the drug’s potential in the realms of psychology and creativity.
The first experimentations with LSD and art began in 1954 with Oscar Janiger, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist. In a clinical setting, he asked artists to do a painting from life of a subject of their choosing. They were then given LSD and asked to do the same painting. The paintings were compared. Almost unanimously, the artists reported LSD to have enhanced their creativity.
By the early 1960s, LSD had become popular in countercultural movements that were being pioneered by beatnik writers like Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and many visual artists. At that point, the trajectory of the relationship between LSD and art becomes less linear and more like an exploding star that forever altered global counterculture.
Who Are the Best LSD Artists?
While superlatives rarely serve conversations about art, there are a number of artists whose work was heavily influenced by acid, and in turn, shaped the aesthetic of acid art as we know it.
Mati Klarwein and Roberto Matta
“Mati Klarwein and Roberto Matta were some of the surrealists who were influenced by acid early on, then their work influenced the psychedelic art of the ’60s and ’70s,” said Brian Chambers, a psychedelic art collector and owner of The Chambers Project, a gallery in Grass Valley with one of the most expansive collections of LSD art in the world.
Though Mati Klarwein reportedly never painted while on acid, the German surrealist was hugely influential in the acid album art movement, designing some of the most iconic album art of all time like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Santana’s Abraxis.
READ: 10 Musicians Inspired by the Power of Psychedelics
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters
“Then you have Stewart Brand, Gut, and Paul Foster, who did the artwork for Ken Kesey’s acid test parties of the ’60s,” Chambers said. Kesey was a beat author and the Merry Pranksters were his friends and followers. In 1964, they drove a bus called “Furthur” across the country handing out acid before it became illegal.
Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also conducted a series of “Acid Tests” in the Bay area during the mid-’60s. They advertised these parties in public places with edgy posters that read, “Can you pass the acid test?” These were designed by Steward Brand and Paul Foster. Like many of the artists and psychedelic players of that era, Stewart Brand is an illustrious figure from an affluent family whose ivy league education and trustafarian bank account allowed him to live out the trippiest of fantasies in real time, and create the art to tell about it.
The “Big Five” San Francisco Poster Artists
“Then there are the big five poster artists from the San Francisco movement,” said Chambers. “Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson, and Victor Moscoso. All of those guys were very outspoken about their use of LSD.”
The Chambers Project most recent show, entitled Godfathers, featured work by the late Rick Griffin (along with Ralph Steadman and Roger Dean), whose optical, art-nouveau-inspired lettering and imagery is partly responsible for shaping the aesthetic we now associate with psychedelic art.
Zap Comix
Chambers identified “Zap Comix” as another influential genre within the LSD art scene. Zap Comix was an underground comic genre that arose from the psychedelic scene centering on work from the famed comic Robert Crumb, Robert WIlliams, and a number of the big five poster artists, including Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, and other fixtures from their world.\
Isaac Abrams
“Then there’s Isaac Abrams, who was the first artist that declared his art as psychedelic art,” said Chambers. The first psychedelic art book (entitled Psychedelic Art) was published in 1968. Abrams’ painting “All Things Are One” was chosen for the cover. Financed by Tim Leary, Abrams opened the world’s first psychedelic art gallery in New York in 1965.
The Op Art Movement
Another interesting genre acid influenced is the Optical Art movement, also known as Op art. Founded by Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, and others, these paintings created optical illusions that had hallucinatory effects on the viewer.
Frank Stella
“Have you heard of Frank Stella?” asked Chambers. Frank Stella worked in all monochrome prior to his experience with acid. “Then he went full color,” he said. “So cool. He’s definitely one of the blue chip guys that were renowned around the world who were obviously influenced by acid, and it completely changed his style.”
Contemporary Artists
He continued, “As far as contemporary guys, Mars-1, Oliver Vernon, Damon Soule, and Alex Grey, of course.” Alex Grey is the most famous contemporary acid artist. Educated at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, his work explores the spiritual effects of acid and other psychedelics as they relate to the human body and its various systems.
Grey is what Chambers refers to as a visionary artist, as opposed to a psychedelic artist.
“I had this little epiphany a few months back,” he said. “It was about the way that Tim Leary used acid versus the way that Ken Kesey used it. Their approach was totally different. Leary was visionary, intentional and therapeutic while Ken was just like loose and wild and let’s party.”
He continued, “In terms of art, I see psychedelic art as being loose, abstract, and wild, whereas visionary art is more figurative and spiritual, like Alex Grey. He’s being very serious about trying to portray a certain experience or a state of mind or a vision. I think there’s a big difference between the two. Obviously they feed off of each other, but portraying spiritual beings and states of enlightenment vs portraying wild and free expression is where I see the difference.”
LSD Blotter Art
In the early 1970s, liquid LSD started being put on perforated blotter paper, sparking an entirely new meta-genre. Like a blank canvas, the blotter sheets themselves became the vehicle of psychedelic art, printed in every conceivable design as miniature artworks.
Mark McCloud is the leading blotter art historian and founder of the Institute of Illegal Images, a 33,000-sheet collection he runs from his Victorian home in San Francisco. Because the majority of these sheets are actually laced with real acid, he’s been the target of two criminal raids where he had to defend his own artistic freedom—and won.
His collection is vast and stunning because he was there for all of it, hanging out with the psychedelic luminaries of his time. His collection tells the narrative of LSD as it pertains to art and music, moving from early psychedelic culture to ’80s punk to nineties raves and beyond. He might even give you a tour of his collection, if you’re cool.
LSD Album Art
The definition of LSD album art that we are working with today includes albums where the visual artist who did the cover was an acid artist, as well as albums where the musicians themselves were promoting acid even if the artist that did the cover was not. Here are some of the most iconic LSD album artworks of all time.
Abraxas by Santana (Mati Klarwein)
“Mati infected everyone with his psychedelic art, and his psychedelic heart,” said Mark McCloud.
“Mati used to say a lot of things about art,” McCloud said. “He would say that psychedelic art has to be paid for with psychedelic money. A lot of people didn’t understand what he meant, but he meant that his art doesn’t fit in the blue chip world because they’re all worried about things like money and banks. So then how could they be real acid heads?”
“Everybody wanted their album cover done by him because he was so fantastic,” he said. “He was already friends with Dali and Hendrix, and had just done Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. Then along came Abraxas.”
Santana saw Klarwein’s painting “Annunciation” in a magazine and was blown away. He wanted it for the cover of Abraxas. The album was a massive success, forever elevating the trajectory of Klarwein’s career and influence.
Klarwein is quoted on his website as saying, “It did me a world of good. I saw the album pinned to the wall in a shaman’s mud hut in Niger and inside a Rastafarian’s ganja hauling truck in Jamaica. I was in good global company. Muchissimas gracias, Carlito!”
Aoxomoxoa by the Grateful Dead (Rick Griffin)
Aoxomoxoa is the third album by the Grateful Dead. Pronounced “ox-oh-mox-oh-ah,” the word is a palindrome created by the legendary acid poster artist Rick Griffin, who created the artwork as well.
As legend has it, the words “Grateful Dead” on the front of the album are an abmigram that also reads “we ate the acid.”
Regarded as one of the best album covers of all time (Rolling Stone voted it #8), the artwork was originally a concert poster for the dead depicting the circle of life.
Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix (David King)
Though widely considered as one of the most iconic psychedelic album covers of all time, the artwork for Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix is also some of the most controversial.
Designed by David King from a painting of the musicians by Roger Law, (based on a photo by Karl Ferris), the cover depicts Vishnu and other Hindu deities, paying homage to Eastern spirituality as well as a nod to Hendrix’s role in acid culture. Upon release, Hindu leaders were offended by the cultural appropriation. Hendrix expressed dismay, stating that it would have been more appropriate to highlight his Native American heritage than a culture he’s not part of. “The three of us have nothing to do with what’s on the Axis cover,” he said at the time.
Lateralus/10,000 Days By TOOL (Alex Grey)
While Alex Grey was already famous in the psychedelic world, his work creating the aesthetic and artwork for the band Tool catapulted him to the mainstream, cementing his status as one of the most famous acid artists of all time.
In true Grey fashion, we see the rigid nature of human anatomy meet the spiritual vibrations of psychedelic intervention. The insert for this album is translucent, flipping to reveal different layers of the human body. In the brain matter page of the final layer, the word “God,” is obscured.
He went on to do the artwork for the 10,000 Days, the follow up album to Lateralus, which consisted of a thick booklet with stereoscopic glasses that were used to view the three dimensional illusions inside. The work was adapted from Grey’s painting “Collective Vision.” (It should be noted that while Grey is a huge advocate for LSD, the 10,000 Days cover depicts a vision he received while tripping on DMT, not LSD.)
LSD Art Today
Ironically, a lot of early acid art ended up being closer to advertising. Album art, posters, and magazine covers are all ultimately used to sell something, even if it’s a mind-melting album or concert experience.
The new world of acid art is much less focused on being a vehicle for accessing other forms of expression and more about the pure expression of the psychedelic experience. Galleries like The Chambers Project are at the forefront of this resurgence.
“As a psychedelic art gallery, it’s taken a long time for us to get respect and trust in the industry,” explains Chambers. “It really only started to happen in the last handful of years. I think that’s because of this shift in the way the public perceives psychedelics.”
“I was fortunate not to have to play by the rules of the traditional art world, but we still get blowback,” he said. “ We still get people reducing our entire mission to doing drugs, which was evident in the LA Times review of the Godfathers show.”
The demonization of acid art that keeps these seminal works in the confines of small collections was illustrated perfectly in a recent piece by the LA Times. Within the first paragraph, the writer had claimed people were “swapping pills and powders in the parking lot.” Instead of focusing on the art, they spent a few thousand words reducing the entire opening to an open air drug market for wayward mountain hippies. For the record, I was there, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Chambers continues, “As more and more people pay attention to psychedelic art and particularly acid art, they’re going to become interested in the history behind it and the new generation of artists paving the future. The new generation is going to realize where it all came from, and they’re going to turn it into their own thing. And we’re going to be here, fully committed to putting the historical context behind all of this incredible work, and helping to shape the public’s perception of it in a positive light.”
