This eye-popping book offers a visual history of the psychedelicsensibility. In pop culture, that sensibility is associated with lava lamps, albumcovers, and "teashades," but it first manifested itself in the extremecolors and kaleidoscopic compositions of 1960s Op Artists. The psychedelicsensibility didn't die at the end of the 1960s; Psychedelic traces it through theday-glo colors of painters Peter Saul, Alex Grey, and Kenny Scharf, the pill andhemp leaf paintings of Fred Tomaselli, the intensified palettes of Douglas Bourgeoisand Sharon Ellis, and mixed-media and new media works by younger artists in the newmillennium. Although the term "psychedelic" was coined to describehallucinatory experiences produced by drugs used psychotherapeutically, the storythese images tell is about the influence of psychedelic culture on the artworld--not necessarily the influence of drugs. As contemporary art evolved into adiverse and pluralistic discipline, the psychedelic evolved into a language of colorand light. In Psychedelic, more than seventy-five vivid color images chart thisdevelopment, exploring the art chronologically, from early Op Art through recentwork using digital technology. The book, which accompanies an exhibition organizedby the San Antonio Museum of Art, includes three essays that set the works inhistorical and cultural context.

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