Grateful Dead exhibit includes rare Jerry Garcia artwork

“Dawn at Ritz Carlton,” by Jerry Garcia “Dawn at Ritz Carlton,” by Jerry Garcia Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Grateful Dead exhibit includes rare Jerry Garcia artwork 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia will be playing for 11 days this month at the C. Parker Gallery in Greenwich.

Well, not the band itself, which remains known for its very long concerts and Deadhead followers. Rather, it will appear in the form of an exhibit, “From the Vault,” that will include artwork by Garcia (who died in 1995 at age 53) and other band members who also painted or drew, as well as personal items, like a brief case and chair Garcia once owned.

But perhaps the most significant cultural component of the exhibit — the one that documents the band’s beginnings in 1960s San Francisco — are signed prints by Baron Wolman, the first chief photographer for the then-new Rolling Stone magazine.

Of the eight to 10 images Wolman expects to be in the exhibit, the most iconic — and in demand by collectors — is the portrait taken in 1969 of Garcia, bearded and bushy haired holding up his right hand as if in salute. Speaking from Santa Fe, N.M., where he lives, Wolman says if you look closely, you’ll see it’s the hand missing a finger.

“When I took that picture I was still doing my own darkroom work, and when I saw that (a negative that appeared to show Garcia somehow hiding a finger) for a month I tried to figure out what he was doing, moving his fingers around. Then I found out his brother chopped it off when he was young, so there was no way I could replicate that,” Wolman says.

“It’s the hand he used with a pick and guitar. So he’d always curl it up and he wouldn’t show anybody he was missing that finger. But when he came to the studio, he gave me that big smile and held up his hand for all the world to see. That image became the logo for the Jerry Garcia estate.”

Another important Wolman image, and now memory, is more revealing of the times than of Garcia personally. It is the photograph he took of the band on the steps of their Haight-Ashbury house in 1967 the day after their arrest for marijuana possession.

“It was my first assignment. Rolling Stone hadn’t even been published yet,” Wolman says. “I heard about the bust, and I happened to be in the office at the time and the bail bondsman was right down the block, so I ran over there. I got pictures of them posting bail, and the next day they had a press conference about the bust.

“Jann (Wenner, the magazine’s legendary publisher) said, ‘Go over and cover the press conference. Get them out on the steps.’ After the press conference, I said, ‘Hey guys. I need to get a group shot,’ and they said, “Who are you?’ and I said, ‘I’m Baron from Rolling Stone.’ (They said) ‘What’s Rolling Stone?’”

The press conference was a scene. The band placed a dishful of whipped cream in front of the media microphones and promised a pie in the face to the first reporter who asked a stupid question.

“That was the energy going on,” Wolman says.

After the press conference ended, he did get his group shot of the band on the steps holding guns. “I didn’t know if they were going to shoot me or if they had bullets,” he says.

Wolman stayed at Rolling Stone only three years, but went on to have other careers as fashion magazine publisher, aerial photographer and sports photographer. His work with musicians remained his most notable, however. Over the years, he photographed Frank Zappa, Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash and Jimi Hendrix, among others. They also have been his bread and butter.

“For years, man, I’ve made a living out of selling prints and licensing photos (to book publishers and television producers),” says Wolman, who recently turned 80, but often speaks in laid-back ’60’s style. “But I’ve got to be honest with you, the people who buy my pictures, they’re not buying the picture because I took it. They’re buying the pictures of bands they love.”

Most of Wolman’s musicians were legends in their own right, but the Grateful Dead may have best epitomized a particular cultural moment. The opening paragraphs of Garcia’s front page New York Times’ obituary referred to his music’s “psychedelic optimism,” to his use of LSD, to the Dead’s embodiment of “1960’s idealism” and “spirit of communal bliss.”

The obit recalls how unique and big the band was. The Dead favored performing live, in ever changing concerts. It did upwards of a hundred shows a year. During one long stretch it never played to an empty seat, even though it performed in the largest arenas. The band took its name from a British ballad genre in which the living help the ghostly dead find peace.

The exhibit at the C. Parker Gallery is not a traveling one, imported from elsewhere. It originated with and is being curated by gallery owner Tiffany Benincasa. The genesis, she says, was her realization that Garcia, who had studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, had left behind a large collection of art and that fellow band members Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart had also become artists.

“I love doing interesting exhibits. I did a Beatles exhibit last fall. I knew Jerry Garcia painted. I thought, ‘What can we build around that?’ I was just being whimsical,” she says.

Benincasa says she also realized, “I don’t think there’s such a thing as not a Dead fan. I think we all grew up with The Grateful Dead.”

With a few weeks to go before the opening, she had identified about 60 pieces of art, some original and some signed prints, that would be in the exhibit, but was still considering other items. Everything will be for sale, and one part of the curatorial job is checking provenances.

She says she’s formed a long-distance friendship with Wolman. He can’t make it to Greenwich because he would have just been in Rome overseeing a retrospective of his work. Both say, however, the launch for his latest project, a book about Jimi Hendrix, may be at the gallery.

Wolman says he preferred photographing Hendrix over Garcia, at least as performers.

“It’s hard to show energy projected to the audience,” Wolman says. “I loved shooting Jimi Hendrix because he was the consummate entertainer, plus a great musician. Jerry Garcia hardly moved. He’d stand in front of the microphone and play. That’s all he did, man. Like one shot and that’s it.”

“From the Vault” runs April 19-29 at the C. Parker Gallery, in Greenwich.