FRIED, R. (Robert)

1971

Offset lithograph with rubber stamp additions

21 5/8 x 27 1/2"

.R. Fried was a Bay area artist who achieved popular fame for his psychedelic posters of rock bands such as Santana, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Non-Negotiable Eights was the artists first print to register his political discontent, a result of the 1970 Kent State massacre in which four students were shot dead and nine others were wounded during a peaceful anti-war march on campus. Fried saw these various images as parables that form an overarching theme of justice. By printing on stamps he added an ironic twist, as stamps usually feature government sanctioned images which glorify the nation. One image features the crumbling pillars of justice while in another the seemingly nefarious deeds of government are represented by a giant black widow dangling above the pentagon building. Other images are less easily interpreted such as the finger with a lighting bolt, a reference to Bob Dylans 1968 song, Drifters Escape which tells of a wrongly accused man set free by a bolt of lightening.

1971

FRIED, R. (Robert)

United States, 1937-1975

Gift of Gary H. Brown

2001.31