An American Beauty: Grateful Dead 1965–1995 is an exhibition of photographs of the iconic psychedelic rock band curated by photographer Jay Blakesberg and his daughter, Ricki Blakesberg, timed with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Grateful Dead. An accompanying coffee table book, published by the gallery, is now available for pre-order and will be officially released on August 1 in honor of Jerry Garcia’s birthday.
An American Beauty features 28 large-scale and 32 smaller photographic prints documenting all eras of the Grateful Dead experience. Selected from the 275 photographs included in the book, these exhibition images were taken by some of the most notable photographers—including Ron Rakow, Rosie McGee, Adrian Boot, Elizabeth Sunflower, Jonathan David Sabin, Snooky Flowers, Andy Leonard, Greg Gaar, Kirk West, and Jay Blakesberg—to document the Dead phenomenon from its early days at the peak of the Haight-Ashbury hippie renaissance through its rise as a stadium-filling, Top 10 cultural force.