SHARP, MARTIN (1942-2013)

*PRICE ON APPLICATION*
 
“Eve” (1979)
Mixed media collage
Cm
Signed on verso
*Hogarth Galleries – “Collages”, 1979
*Ann Lewis AO Collection
*private collection, Sydney
 
Sharp was Australia's foremost pop artist. He co-wrote one of Cream's best known songs, "Tales of Brave Ulysses", & created the iconic cover art for Cream's Disraeli Gears & Wheels of Fire albums. He is best known for his distinctive 1960s music posters. Sharp's clients included many popular musicians of the day, such as Bob Dylan & Donovan. In his most popular designs, the artist embedded letters, photographs, & bizarre cartoon figures into psychedelic patterns. He was primarily responsible for creating the 1960s psychedelic aesthetic for poster & album art. He was trained at the National Art School. He was founding co-editor with Richard Neville & Richard Walsh of Oz magazine, contributing humorous & often sexually explicit cartoons to the controversial journal. When he & Neville re-located Oz to London, Sharp continued as art director. Here he liased & collaborated with music royalty. When he returned to Sydney in the early 1970s, he established The Yellow House Collective, featuring Brett Whiteley, Garry Shead & Peter Kingston, who were responsible for creating some of the most influential art, graphic design & experimental films of the era. He also designed the important Nimrod series of screenprints & produced a number of iconic images of the Sydney Opera House. He exhibited widely from 1965 & is represented in all major Australian state galleries & the NGA. His work has been exhibited at the AGSA & AGNSW. This impressive collage, completed shortly after the devastating Luna Park Ghost Train fire, compiled with popular magazine cutouts, was made for his joint "Collage" Exhibition with Shead at Hogarth Galleries in 1979. It has remained in one private collection since then.