Lee Conklin
Biography
Lee Conklin (born July 24, 1941, in New Jersey) became Bill Graham's principal poster artist from the summer of 1968 into 1969 — the bridge figure between the founding psychedelic generation and the photomontage era that followed. After an Army stint and a stretch placing pen-and-ink work with the Los Angeles Free Press, he was drawn to San Francisco by the city's poster scene; showing his sketchbook around the Haight led him to Graham, who hired him on the spot. Across roughly thirty-one designs for the Fillmore in 1968–69, Conklin worked almost entirely in dense black-and-white pen and ink — surreal, optically intricate compositions in which faces and figures morph out of the lettering itself. His most enduring image is the snarling "lion" poster (BG-134, Fillmore West, August 1968), which Santana adopted for its 1969 debut album. His Graham relationship ended abruptly in 1969 over a payment dispute, and he largely left commercial poster work, later turning to therapy-aide work and reforestation in Northern California.
Why They Matter
Conklin's significance lies in his departure: where the founding "Big Five" leaned on saturated, vibrating color, he worked in meticulous black-and-white pen and ink — an intricate surrealism of optical illusion and forms that grow out of the lettering, a draftsman's psychedelia. The Santana lion is his largest cultural footprint, outliving its concert poster to become the band's visual emblem. And he occupies a pivotal seam in Fillmore history: Graham's house artist in the stretch between the early pioneers and David Singer, who took the role toward photomontage.
Notable Works
- BG-134, the "Santana Lion" (Fillmore West, August 1968) — his most famous design, a pen-and-ink lion's head built from morphing human faces, later adapted as the cover of Santana's 1969 self-titled debut album
- his run of ~31 Bill Graham Fillmore/Fillmore West posters (1968–69)
- BG-126 and other dense black-and-white pen-and-ink pieces from the same period