Artist

Victor Moscoso

born La Coruna, Spain 1936
Also known as
  • Neon Rose
Born
La Coruna, Spain
Active in
  • Woodacre, California, United States
  • San Francisco, California, United States
Biography

Born in Spain, Victor Moscoso was the first of the rock poster artists with academic training and experience. After studying art at Cooper Union in New York City and at Yale University, he moved to San Francisco in 1959, where he attended the San Francisco Art Institute, eventually becoming an instructor there.

At a dance at the Avalon Ballroom, Moscoso saw rock posters and decided that he could "make some money doing posters for those guys." In the fall of 1966 he began designing posters for the Family Dog and also produced posters for the Avalon Ballroom. Under his own imprint, Neon Rose, he did a series for Matrix, a local night spot. Moscoso's style is most notable for its visual intensity, which is obtained by manipulating form and color to create optical effects. Moscoso's use of intense color contrasts and vibrating edges and borders was influenced by painter Josef Albers, his teacher at Yale. Given Moscoso's artistic sophistication, it is not surprising that he was the first of the rock poster artists to use photographic collage.

Therese Thau Heyman Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998)

Works by this artist (4 items)

Howard Newman, Temptress, 1978, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1985.30.54
Temptress
Date1978
bronze
On view
Howard Newman, Half Woman, Quarter Bird, 1974-1975, bronze/cast, assembled and screwed, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.68, © 1975, Howard Newman
Half Woman, Quarter Bird
Date1974-1975
bronze/cast, assembled and screwed
Not on view
Howard Newman, Untitled, 1979, graphite and brown watercolor wash on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1985.30.53
Untitled
Date1979
graphite and brown watercolor wash on paper
Not on view
Howard Newman, Winter, 1978, bronze on integral base, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1985.30.55
Winter
Date1978
bronze on integral base
Not on view