Psychedelic Art is the name given to a movement in the visual arts that emerged during the mid-20th century, chiefly in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The artwork produced during this period is characterised by striking colours, bold geometric motifs, distorted or fantastical illustrations of animals, humans and plants and intense visual distortion. It was inspired by psychoactive drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline and DMT.
Psychedelic art is a style of artistic expression that relies upon the use of psychedelic experiences and hallucinations. Psychedelic art uses highly vivid, exaggerated and distorted colors, overlapping patterns, and curious textures to evoke responses from the audience.
The style is thought to have originated in the late 1960s with various artists like Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Bonnie MacLean and Gary Grimshaw who were associated with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. This was a group of American activists who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs (particularly LSD) to expand one’s consciousness. The term “psychedelic” means “mind manifesting”. It comes from Greek words meaning “mind-revealing”. Psychedelic art is experiential in nature; the psychedelic artist tries to convey their experience in the work itself and can be considered an extension of non-verbal therapies.
The term is also used for artists who produce similar works. Many works are by self-proclaimed psychedelic artists such as those involved with the online community psyshop and the annual Dopamin exhibits at Le Sucre gallery in Montreal.
Psychedelic art is a revolutionary art style, which was popularized in the 1960s. The psychedelic art style is an idea that came into existence as a result of combining different kinds of art media and visual imagery. This style of art has been around for centuries; however, it was only in the 1960s that the psychedelic art became very popular.
The psychedelic art emerged from the counterculture movement of the 1960s, mainly from the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Artists who were influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs started creating their works with colors and patterns that were not usually used in traditional art forms. The use of drugs gave them new ideas and this led to the emergence of new forms of expression and thus psychedelic art was born.
The artists who created these works were called “psychedelic artists” and so it is derived its name. The artists involved in this movement included both well-known and unknown people who had found something new in this form of expression. Although this form of art is quite different from traditional forms, it has become quite popular even to date.
Psychedelic art is a name applied to artwork created under the influence of psychedelic drugs. Psychedelic art is also the name of a movement which promoted the use of psychedelic drugs, primarily LSD, as creative tools.
The origins of psychedelic art are rooted in the 19th century European Romanticism movement and modernism, and in techniques used to produce optical effects. The invention of various techniques for producing abstract art (in particular, collage) in the early 20th century was also an important precursor to psychedelic art.
Towards the end of the 1950s, the Beat Generation became interested in psychedelics such as LSD and began incorporating it into their works.
This trend would continue into the 1960s with highly influential artists such as Peter Max, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat using psychedelics in their work.
It is widely believed that this inspired a generation of artists to begin using LSD themselves and subsequently depict its effects in paintings and other forms of media.
Psychedelic art is a style of visual art, music and literature that experiences the world in a manner that it is not commonly experienced. The style has origins in 1920s surrealism, although the term was not coined until the 1960s. Psychedelic art focuses on the intrinsic quality of an object and uses a variety of visual techniques such as bright colours, bold lines, distorted images and sounds to elicit sensory experiences. The psychedelic art movement was influenced by psychedelic drugs which were introduced into culture in the mid-twentieth century. The psychedelic movement was also influenced by cybernetics and new computing technologies.
Towards the end of his life, Leary suggested that “psychedelic” be used as an adjective for “spiritual” or “emotionally healing.” This use has become common among advocates of psychedelics who are proponents of psychedelic therapy, such as the scientists at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who study psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception (1954) is said to have been influential to this field when it was published,[5] and William S. Burroughs’ novel Nova Express (1963) helped to develop the cut-up technique.[6
The Psychedelic art movement, also known as the psychedelic visual art movement, was a style of visual art that emerged in San Francisco, California during the mid-1960s. The psychedelic art movement is characterized by striking images of psychedelic imagery, kaleidoscopic color patterns, bizarre subject matter, and sometimes surreal or disturbing subject matter. Much of the psychedelic art created during this period served as a visual expression of the cultural mood of the 1960s psyche, attitudes, and music.
The Psychedelic Art Movement was also an extension of new styles of Western art previously not commonly exported outside the United States.[1] The “psychedelic” visual style is also related to the pop art movement. In essence, it is a combination of abstract expressionism, pop art and surrealism.[2]
Psychedelic art explores personal feelings and for some therapy. It often conveys feelings or states that can not be put into objective words. The artwork produced often contains elements such as vibrant colors, odd forms and arrangements and intricate patterns.[3]
Although similar in some aspects to modern day “trance art,” its main difference is that it does not necessarily evoke a trance-like state in the viewer but can actually be more stimulating than other forms of abstract art in
Psychedelic art is a name given to a style of art that was popular in the 1960s. It was known as psychedelic because it attempted to replicate the effects caused by psychoactive drugs like LSD. Psychedelic art tends to be geometric, and often uses bright colors, especially fluorescent ones.
Many artists who created psychedelic art during the 1960s were influenced by other artistic movements such as Cubism and Surrealist art. Many famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Yayoi Kusama produced works that easily fit into the category of psychedelic art.
Terence McKenna said in a lecture titled “Psychedelics Before and After History” that out-of-body experiences are typical of the psychedelic experience. He describes them as “a projection of imagination beyond the body’s field which allows you to see yourself from the outside.” McKenna also says that it always appears to him as if he is looking at his physical body from several feet away while he is on psychedelics. He says this feeling is similar to accounts of near death experiences (NDEs), which describes seeing one’s own body from an outside perspective while experiencing an out-of-body experience (OBE).
In an episode of Breaking Bad, Jesse Pink
