ABSTRACT
Psychedelic art flowered in the by-ways and enclaves of Haight Ashbury, a visual manifestation of the mind-altering drug-consumer culture which emerged in the mid-1960s. By comparison the current direction towards supernatural realism seems to extend the boundaries opened during the psychedelic period. The art of the on-going consciousness actually posits an alternative reality, a symbolic domain in which the observer is invited to participate. Klarwein's cosmology is a mixed one: idyllic, aristocratic negroes, meditating swamis, bikinied sunbathers and triple-headed goddesses stride side by side, while in the distant horizon perhaps an Islamic temple or tribal totem rises into the sky. Dean's world is paradoxical but it respects nature's energies, and his archetypal heroes are magicians or creators of fantastic organic machines which harness the universal life-force constructively. Diana Vandenberg and Johfra Bosschart combine a sort of psychedelic realism with magical imagery and much of their work has appeared as large-format posters.
