[Woodstock Festival] Skolnick, Arnold.
Woodstock Festival Poster
Poster from the legendary 1969 festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, N.Y. / 3 Days of Peace & Music." The bold design in primary colors shows a hand on a guitar fingerboard, with a white dove perched alongside. Very light scattered foxing spots to the verso, overall very fine. 18 x 24.5 inches (46 x 62 cm).The poster does not exhibit the vertical line upper left as called for in Type 2 examples, and is thus evidently an early reprint. It is sold with a COA (November 17, 1993) signed by Norman M. Karp, certifying that he purchased the poster from the Kross Safe Company of South Fallsburg, New York, and that it came from the safe used by the promoters of the Woodstock Festival.
This iconic poster was created by artist Arnold Skolnick. The bird was modeled on a catbird he watched while staying on Shelter Island. He recounted, "I was drawing catbirds all the time... It sat on a flute for a day, and I finally ended up putting it on a guitar." Because the location of the festival had to be changed at the last minute, there was little time to have the posters printed and distributed. The final posters were not delivered until four days before the festival began. 75 were displayed, some were sold for $1.00 as souvenirs to the crowds as they were leaving, and the rest were never used. (17839)
Song Poster