It was available for purchase from Sandoz laboratories in Switzerland, where Hofmann worked and many medical applications were under research. While it was legal LSD was distributed mostly in liquid form and as pills, capsules, or sometimes dropped onto sugar cubes. LSD was legal in the beginning including in The USA until it became illegal in California on October 6, 1966, and other states and countries soon followed.Īlbert Hofmann holding a Timothy Leary Blotter Art Sheet (via Blotter Barn) Gathering of the Tribes, “Human Be-In” 1967.LSD blotter art – How illegal drug distribution turned into artĬan illegal drug distribution turn into an artform? Can collecting art get you in jail? And how did a system for labeling illegal substances turned into a way of preserving psychedelic culture’s history and a thriving collector’s’ market? And where can you learn about all that? Answers and a glimpse into almost 50 years of LSD art inside.Īlbert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) was a Swiss scientist who was the first person to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a drug that came to be synonymous with the 50s and 60s beatnik and hippy generations in The USA and worldwide. It enabled the birth of an artistic movement that was purely counter-cultural and stands alone as totally mesmerizing. Who needs drugs. However inviable his ultimate goal, Leary’s message was one of peace and eternal optimism. Needless to say Leary’s ultimate ambition of an acid driven world never materialized, which is probably for the best considering the state of our politics and economy when we are not all high. Propelled by the invasion of the British psychedelic rock force led by bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, artists and design outfits were comissioned to create experimental promotional posters, for experimental music for experimental events….whilst everyone was experimenting with LSD. Meanwhile President Richard Nixon was publicly declaring Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” The most notable visual output from this movement came in the format of the psychedelic poster. Aesthetically, this meant a drive towards visual innovation kaleidoscopic colour palettes, the invention of the UV backlight and designs usually directed at achieving implicit free flowing beauty, opulence and serenity as advocated by the European Art Nouveau movement. Art became an experiential force as creatives sought to communicate and recreate their mind blowing hallucinations and take their viewers to far out dimensions. For a world absorbed in war, persecution and restriction, it signified total release of the mind from the confinements of reality and came to symbolize liberal attitude. LSD received religion-like status worldwide and Leary was it’s messiah. Music was not the only creative realm that psychedelia impacted during the 60s and 70s. However it was not before long that Leary managed to stage a non-violent escape from prison and fled with his wife to Algeria. For Leary, John came up with “Come Together, ” a song which came to surpass the political party that it was written for (by a LONG way.) Leary never made it into the Governor seat and the following year was jailed for ten years as a culminating sentence for previous drug related offenses. Leary became politically recognized by his slogan “Come together, join the party,” and invoked the song writing talents of his good friend and follower John Lennon to come up with a suitable theme tune for his campaign. Having successfully screwed with the U.S judicial system, he took the next logical step and decided to run for Govenor of California, against Ronald Reagan. The American psycologist, writer and futurist dedicated much of his life researching and campaigning the psychedelic drug in the belief that its spiritual, theraputic and emotional benefits surpassed those of any other substance known on earth.Īppropriately, Leary’s life was full of highs and lows. In 1965 he was arrested, the police having caught him smuggling marijuana into Mexico…in his daughter’s knickers a conviction that he was later acquitted of but only after having The U.S Supreme Court declare the Marijuana Tax Act unconstitutional. In the 1960s Timothy Leary prophesied a future in which LSD reigned over humanity.
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