David Edward Byrd, a poster artist for rock bands and Broadway shows whose work captured the Psychedelic Age, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 3 from pneumonia brought on by Covid-related lung damage. He was 83 years old.
Between the late 1960s and ’80s, Byrd’s posters were hard to miss. It all started in 1967, when Byrd moved to a farm in Port Jervis, New York, to join a community of other young artists called Fantasy Unlimited. Byrd had a tough time landing a job after graduating with an MFA from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now called Carnegie Mellon University). He joined Fantasy Unlimited, which had become known for its production of multimedia light shows complete with colorfully luminescent projections, hand-drawn animations, bubble machines, and strobe lighting, at the behest of his former college roommate, a founder of the group.
From there, Byrd found success making posters affiliated with another more famous light show, started by Carnegie graduate Joshua White. The Joshua Light Show was performing with rock bands Traffic, Iron Butterfly, and Blue Cheer and, in spring 1968, Byrd was hired to make a poster for a show at New York’s Fillmore East. Though he knew nothing about promotional posters, Byrd produced an arresting image of four Native American men in a tunnel of bright purple, orange, and hot pink hues staring outwards at the viewer, which set the tone for subsequent works.
Byrd continued to create posters until the Fillmore East’s 1971 closure. Though his 1968 Jimi Hendrix Experience poster is perhaps the most enduring of Byrd’s legacy, he went on to create the 1969 Rolling Stones tour poster, the iconic 1971 poster for Stephen Sondheim musical Follies, followed by the 1971 Godspell poster, and portraits of the band KISS in 1978.
He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1980 and, in 1981, met his husband, mosaic artist Jolino Beserra. This move lead to Byrd landing a job in the creative services department at Warner Brothers in 1991. There, over the course of 11 years, he worked on such visual materials as a set of Looney Tunes stamps for the United States Postal Service, Friends merchandise, and style guides for the first few Harry Potter films.
In his later years, Byrd took on freelance work, and often designed pro-bono posters for charity events and struggling theaters, as well as T-shirt designs for animal rescues.
David Edward Byrd, 2010.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
David Edward Byrd was born on April 4, 1941, in Cleveland, Tennessee. His father, Willis, was a traveling salesman who fought in World War II, and during the war, his mother, Veda, placed Byrd in foster care when he was 3 while trying to find a wealthier husband.
Roughly two years later, Veda married Albree Miller, an executive at the restaurant chain Howard Johnson’s. She took her son and moved into Miller’s highly styled mid-century modern mansion in Miami Beach, Florida. His parents’ party lifestyle left Byrd with a deeply unhappy childhood until he found art. Byrd graduated high school in 1959 and, without the support of his parents, worked in a Pittsburgh steel mill while pursuing his education at Carnegie.
During this time, Byrd was in a car accident that left him with a cracked pelvis, tailbone, and two neck vertebrae, and he had to relearn how to walk. Not long after, in 1962, his mother died from an overdose. Byrd subsequently became addicted to painkillers following the trauma of the incident. He sunk into a deep depression and struggled with anorexia. Byrd eventually restarted art school.
Though he found professional success, Byrd continued to struggle—this time with heroin and opium—which informed his decision to leave New York for Los Angeles with his toothbrush, portfolio, and $548. This transition wasn’t easy at first, but Byrd found his footing and his partner of 43 years. Together, he and Bessera moved to Albuquerque last year. Above everything, Byrd was continually committed to his practice, which was greatly informed by art history.
