The history and purpose of blotter art
In the 1990s a new form of psychedelic art arose - blotter art.
Led by Mark McCloud, a number of people realised the beauty and cultural relevance inherent in sheets of LSD blotter which were imprinted with a pattern, image or design. The blotter artwork wtoo as becoming both increasingly sophisticated and relevant to events in the wider world, with the images on blotter celebrating aspects of psychedlic history, cultural events or even just well know cartoon characters.
The transient nature of blotter LSD made it a scarce, and thus collectible, commodity, and the fact that LSD was illegal made it difficult to collect and display.
But McCloud and, later, others began to acquire sheets of blotter art which were inert through exposure to sunlight, or which had never been dipped in the first place. LSD blotter artists began to produce undipped blotter specifically for the collector market and a scale of relative value began to emerge. Blotters by famous blotter artists, often in limited edition, were worth more than mass produced blotters, and so on. Blotter art pieces signed by psychedelic luminaries increased the value of a piece immensely; for instance a piece signed by Tim Leary can go for anything between £100- £250, a piece signed by Albert Hofmann can command anything up to £3,000, and so on.
Galleries in the USA began curating exhibitions of blotter art and a brisk trading networks sprung up on the internet, both from private dealers and individuals selling through ebay. As yet there has been no exhibition of blotter art in Britain, but it is only a matter of time before gallery owners realise the potential for this new art form.
The art world, by and large, has as yet ignored this fascinating and genuine example of folk art. But it's a safe bet that within a few years blotter art, especially the rarer designs and those signed by the movers and shakers of psychedelia will be selling for large amounts of money. But for now, blotter art is relatively cheap and worth investing in.
Blotter art is perfectly legal - the sheets sold now have never seen any LSD. Framed blotter art looks fantastic on a wall and is a great conversation piece.
In Britain the foremost dealer in blotter art is Monkey, whose web site is at:
I've bought a lot of blotter art from Monkey and found him a great guy to deal with and very knowlegeable about blotter art and its history.
Is also a very good resource for blotter art and a google search will bring up several hundred references to the genre.
All we need now is for someone to write a book on blotter art and its history.