A very rare original concert poster advertising shows by Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable featuring the Velvet Underground and Nico, at the Sunset Strip club The Trip, in May 1966. Silkscreened on cardboard, the artwork reproduces the April 25, 1966 cover of Newsweek featuring a Roy Lichtenstein painting, and the Campbell’s Soup kids in the lower right corner. While the Velvet Underground was scheduled to perform two weeks of shows, the run was shut down by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department after a few nights.

This exceptional poster comes from the archive of the late Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison. For the past 19 years it has been on loan to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where it has been exhibited on a rotating basis. We acquired the poster from Sterling’s widow, Martha, and it was shipped to us directly from the Warhol Museum (we will provide the buyer with copies of documentation from Warhol Museum noting this (the scan of their Return Receipt below has addresses/phone numbers/signatures removed for privacy.)

The poster is mounted in the Warhol Museum’s archival acid-free matte, held in place by “window corners”, from which is it easily removed. The back of the poster has Sterling Morrison’s archive stamp and his handwritten inventory number; inside the mount has the Warhol Museum’s notations and Morrison Archive number.

The poster is in overall very good condition, and displays beautifully. The colors are strong and bold, there is just a hint of toning (mostly visible in a subtle vertical line to the right of the word “presents”), and a long-flattened horizontal crease is barely noticeable. There is a small bit of abrasion to the surface, by the upside-down “the” and to the top right part of the “T” in “Trip”. Someone—almost certainly Morrison—has touched this up with what looks like a black felt tip pen, also tracing over the “May 3-18” and some of the of the black areas in the “Pop”magazine cover. This is only noticeable from very close up; when examining the black areas noted, it looks like there are two shades of black, one slightly darker than the other. You can see this in the close-up scans, but it is unnoticeable unless you are close up and looking for it. This will look stunning in a frame.

The poster measures 14” x 21 7/8” and the archival mount 22” x 28”. A rare opportunity to obtain a highly desirable Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol poster with exceptional provenance—owned by a band member, and exhibited at the Warhol Museum. With Recordmecca’s lifetime guarantee of authenticity.