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.
Read more on deadline.com
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