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Original 1969 color 13.5 x 22.25 poster for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair designed by David Byrd, advertising the festival as “An Aquarian Exposition” to be held in Wallkill, New York, on August 15, 16, and 17. Byrd’s elaborate Art Nouveau-inspired design features a central nude female figure pouring water from an urn, surrounded by richly colored panels of figures, birds, hearts, and intricate psychedelic ornamentation. Printed “David Byrd ©1969” along the lower left border. In fine condition, with tape remnants to the reverse.
David Byrd created this first Woodstock poster while the festival was still scheduled for Wallkill, New York. Byrd, already well known for his poster designs for Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, was recommended to the festival organizers by Graham and completed the artwork in June 1969. His elaborate design drew upon Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s 19th-century painting La Source for its central figure. Soon afterward, the town of Wallkill effectively blocked the festival from proceeding at its planned site, ultimately forcing organizers to relocate to Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel. Byrd was away in the Caribbean when the change occurred and was unavailable to revise the poster, prompting the organizers to commission a replacement from Arnold Skolnick, whose dove-and-guitar design became the familiar emblem of Woodstock.
