David Edward Byrd Dies: ‘Follies’ Artist Whose Iconic Psychedelic Posters Spanned Rock And Broadway Was 83

David Edward Byrd, an artist whose swirling, psychedelic, instantly entrancing illustrations gave the rock mecca Fillmore East its signature look and contributed at least two of the greatest, most recognizable posters in modern Broadway history for two beloved productions, Follies and Godspell, died Monday, February 3, at a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was 83.

His husband, the artist Jolino Beserra, announced on social media. In a recent Facebook post, Beserra described Byrd’s failing health as the poster artist struggled with heart and lung problems, pneumonia and the effects of two bouts with Covid.

Born April 4, 1941, in Tennessee but raised in Miami Beach, Florida, Byrd studied painting and design at Carnegie-Mellon University in the mid-1960s, and from 1970 to 1979 taught at New York’s Pratt Institute.

In 1968, his friend Joshua White – who gave rock shows their distinctive psychedelic aura with his Joshua Light Show – recommended Byrd to rock impressario Bill Graham, whose Fillmore East had just opened and would quickly become an East Village rock mecca. Byrd was hired on the spot as the venue’s exclusive poster and program designer. One of his posters, for a 1968 performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was voted the eighth best rock poster ever by Billboard magazine.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Byrd and the art collective he co-founded, Fantasy Unlimited, created posters for Traffic, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, among many others. He created the posters for the Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour, the Who’s 1971 Metropolitan Opera House performance of Tommy and, in 1978, the four solo album covers by members of KISS, designed to fit together as a mosaic.

For some devotees, though, Byrd left his most indelible impression on Broadway, designing some of theater’s most influential and best-remembered posters and logos. He created the gorgeously garish and grisly poster for The Little Shop of Horrors, a more muted 1971 poster for Jesus Christ Superstar combining cathedral art and rock imagery, and that same year, the iconic poster for Follies, the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical about a reunion of aging showgirls.

The poster focuses on a crumbling, brilliantly colored Art Deco bust of a showgirl, blue and purple hair flowing, a headdress featuring the title of the show and a small galaxy of stars. Ultra-modern in design, the image hinted at the nostalgia of the musical’s subject: The face of the bust is cracked.

In a 2023 interview with Playbill, Byrd said he was inspired by a famous Life Magazine photo of Gloria Swanson standing amidst the rubble of a demolished theater.

The poster was an instant eye-grabber, and one set of those eyes, as Byrd told Playbill, belonged to Edgar Lansbury, the producer (and brother of Angela Lansbury) who called Byrd to his office near the Winter Garden Theatre where Follies was in previews. As Byrd told Playbill, “He said, ‘I want you to go to the window, stick your head out, and turn to the left.’ So I did that and there was my giant Follies on the marquee of the Winter Garden. And he said, ‘I want that poster. But I want it to be Jesus.'”

Thus was born Byrd’s second great Broadway creation: His Godspell image depicted, in Deco black and white swirls, the face of Jesus as modern-day long-hair, with a small circle of red on his cheek meant to convey the circus-clown imagery of the musical but might just as easily be a drop of blood.

In the 1980s, Byrd worked as Art Director for Van Halen and designed posters for Los Angeles theaters including The Mark Taper Forum and The Ahmanson Theatre.

While his work might best be remembered by folks of a certain age, at least one set of his illustrations is well-known to a younger generation: He designed the richly colorful covers for the first three Harry Potter books.

In 2023, Byrd published his autobiography Poster Child: The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd, chock full of the poster art that has delighted untold numbers of observers.

But one of Byrd’s posters would become something of a rarity: He created a poster for the Woodstock music festival in 1969, with cherubs and hearts flanking a nude female water bearer atop the words “An Aquarian Exposition Wallkill, New York.” Byrd was on a Caribbean vacation when the site of the festival was moved to Max Yasgur’s farm in nearby Bethel.

Unable to reach Byrd, festival organizers hired graphic designer Arnold Skolnick to come up with something, and his dove-and-guitar image became synonymous with the festival.

Byrd is survived by Beserra. Complete survivor information was not immediately available.