LIFE magazine on "LSD Art," 1966

From the LIFE magazine September 9, 1966 cover story about psychedelic art:

"Amid throbbing lights, dizzying designs, swirling smells, swelling sounds, the world of art is 'turning on.' It is getting hooked on psychedelic art, the latest, liveliest movement to seethe up from the underground."

More LIFE images from that story and the 1960s psychedelic culture

• [Irene Delse]

  Psychedelic drugs? My, one more art gallery that won’t be featured in Apple’s AppStore, if they follow their guidelines…

• [allenbukoff]

  I once asked Dick Higgins, one of the founders of Fluxus (one of the most radical art movements of the 1960′s), about the use of LSD by Fluxus artists. He said that he and others had experimented with creating art/performing/etc. while tripping, but that they had not been very successful in producing anything very interesting. He said he abandoned the creating-art-while-tripping effort after a couple of tries.

  • [adonai]

    I’ve read the same kind of thing about The Beatles. They tried to record a few times while high or tripping but couldn’t get anything worthwhile done. They ended up trying to recreate when sober rather than create while off their face (with quite decent results ;)

• [jimkirk]

  Don’t forget this…

  http://boingboing.net/2010/04/06/lsd-and-the-birth-of.html

• [Cowicide]

  whoops, I meant to put this quote here from the LIFE mag instead of in the other Tim thread:

  “Don’t take LSD unless you are very well prepared, unless you are specifically prepared to go out of your mind. Don’t take it unless you have someone that’s very experienced with you to guide you through it. And don’t take it unless you are ready to have your perspective on yourself and your life radically changed, because you’re gonna be a different person, and you should be ready to face this possibility.” —Timothy Leary, 1966. Pictured: Leary on his farm in Millbrook, N.Y., in ’67.

  Love this quote

• [Anonymous]

  Cool post on what would have been Timothy Leary’s 90th birthday!

• [magdalen23]

  pesco – i have a fab Life cover about LSD from the 60s – want me to dig it up? xoxo -mag/tif (email me at this login + gmail if you like)