Pristine vintage Elvis Presley silkscreen by K. Chillis 1978. MINT. RARE

  

Pristine vintage Elvis Presley silkscreen - an original from rock poster artist K. Chillis, whose collectible prints are rare finds, rarer still in mint deadstock condition. Dated 1978, printed between 1978 and 1984. Not a reprint, not a reissue, not a reproduction. Gorgeous image of Elvis in profile - head turned slightly downward, lips parted, that famous pompadour rendered in dense black linework that almost vibrates off the warm gold ground.

Master of the silkscreen K. Chillis made a bold compositional choice here: the face is photorealistic in its detail and intensity, while the jumpsuit below dissolves into something almost abstract - rhinestones and fringe suggested through loose, organic clusters of dots and marks, the white fabric bleeding into the background like the costume is still being assembled around the man. It's a deliberate split, and it works. The face is the truth; the suit is the mythology. Chillis lets you see both at once without collapsing them into each other.

This poster arrives in the shadow of Elvis's 1977 death. While it's not dated, other silkscreens in this series are mostly from 1978, some from 1979. This was a moment when the culture was still sorting out what Elvis actually meant, separate from the kitsch and the impersonators already starting to swallow his image whole.

Chillis sidesteps all of that by going straight to the late-era performer: not the'50s rebel, not the Hollywood product, but the Las Vegas Elvis - the one in the jeweled jumpsuit who could still, on a given night, make a room forget everything else. That's the tension this poster holds. For collectors, it's one of the more honest Elvis images out there - less icon, more human being, caught between the spectacle and the song. Paper measures 20 1/4" x 22 1/2" on heavy weight silkscreen stock. Happy to answer questions and suggest some easy framing options. Never hung, never rolled, never displayed. Any framed wall photos are Photoshop mockups.

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