Victor Moscoso is a classically trained artist who applied an academic perspective to the psychedelic era. He studied at Yale with Joseph Albers whose theories on the use of color were a major influence in Moscoso’s later work.
By 1959 Moscoso had migrated west to the San Francisco Art Institute where he would receive his MFA and eventually teach lithography. By the fall of 1966, Moscoso was one of the first artists to recognize the powerful impact and the enduring legacy that the art of that era would generate. He was keenly aware of the important role that poster art was playing in defining the aesthetic of the counter-culture revolution.
Moscoso’s unique creations often employ wildly intricate typography that is virtually illegible. He is also famous for alternating deeply saturated colors that when viewed together will create a vibrating effect.
In 1968 Moscoso became one of the main contributors to Robert Crumb’s Zap Comix. Over the past 40 years his distinctive designs have appeared on magazines, billboards and album covers for Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Herbie Hancock.
Moscoso is still creating his art, and he’s working on a book about his life and work.