Martin Sharp
Encyclopedia
Martin Sharp is an Australia
n artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Sharp has made contributions to Australian and international culture since the early 60s, and is hailed as Australia's foremost pop art
ist. His famous psychedelic posters
of Bob Dylan
, Donovan
and others, rank as classics of the genre, alongside the work of Rick Griffin
, Hapshash and the Coloured Coat
and Milton Glaser
. His covers, cartoons and illustrations were a central feature of Oz
magazine, both in Australia and in London. Martin co-wrote one of Cream
's most famous songs, "Tales of Brave Ulysses
", created the cover art for Cream's Disraeli Gears
and Wheels of Fire
albums, and in the 1970s, he became a champion of singer Tiny Tim
, and of Sydney's embattled Luna Park
.
Martin was born in Sydney
in 1942, and was educated at Cranbrook
private school, where one of his teachers was the noted artist Justin O'Brien. In 1960, Martin enrolled at the National Art School
at East Sydney, where he began his artistic career contributing to the short-lived student magazine The Arty Wild Oat, along with fellow artists Garry Shead
and John Firth Smith. He also submitted cartoons to The Bulletin
. In 1961, he enrolled for two terms in Architecture
at Sydney University before returning to the NAS.
, editor of the University of NSW student magazine Tharunka
, and Richard Walsh
, editor of its Sydney University counterpart Honi Soit
. Both wanted to publish their own "magazine of dissent" and they asked Sharp and Shead to become contributors. The magazine was dubbed Oz. From 1963-65 Martin was its art director and a major contributor.
Sydney Oz hit the streets on April Fool's Day, 1963. Its irreverent attitude was in the tradition of the student newspapers, but it satirical and topical coverage of local and national issues and people developed a national profile, and made it a target for "the Establishment", and soon a prominent casualty of the so-called "Censorship Wars".
Martin held his first one-man exhibition at the Clune Galleries in Sydney, Australia in 1965. "Art for Mart's Sake" almost sold out on the opening night. One of the paintings exhibited also featured in Shead's James Bond spoof Blunderball, made earlier that year.
During the life of Australian Oz Sharp, Neville and Walsh were twice charged with printing an obscene publication. The first trial was relatively minor, and should have been a non-event, but they were poorly advised and pleaded guilty, which resulted in their convictions being recorded. As a result, when they were charged with obscenity a second time, their previous convictions meant that the new charges were considerably more serious.
The charges centred on two items in the early issues of Oz -- one was Sharp's ribald poem "The Word Flashed Around The Arms", which satirised the contemporary habit of youths gatecrashing parties; the other offending item was the famous photo (used on the cover of Oz #6) which depicted Neville and two friends pretending to urinate into a Tom Bass
sculptural wall fountain, set into the wall of the new P&O
office in Sydney, which had recently been opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies
.
Sharp, Neville and Walsh were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Their convictions caused a public outcry and they were subsequently acquitted on appeal, but the so-called "Oz Three" realised that there was little future battling such strong opposition.
On arrival, Sharp stayed for a short time with Neville's sister, writer Jill Neville in Knightsbridge
. It was at this time that he was introduced to a musician in the famous London nightclub, The Speakeasy. During the evening Sharp told the musician about a poem he had recently written; the musician in turn told Martin that he was looking for a lyric for some new music he had just written. Sharp obligingly wrote out the poem and his address on a serviette and gave it to his new acquaintance.
The musician turned out to be acclaimed guitarist Eric Clapton
. The song that resulted from the meeting, "Tales of Brave Ulysses", was recorded as the B-side of Cream's smash hit "Strange Brew" and was included on Cream's second album Disraeli Gears
. His friendship with Clapton led to the commission to design the famous 'dayglo' psychedelic
collage cover for that album, which included painted photographs by Sharp's friend Robert Whitaker
, whom Sharp knew from Australia and whose studio was in the same building where Sharp lived.
The following year Sharp designed the spectacular gatefold sleeve for Cream's third album, the double LP set Wheels of Fire
(1968), for which he won the New York Art Directors Prize for Best Album Design in 1969. He also designed the cover for the eponymous debut L.P. of London underground legends Mighty Baby
(1969).
, Chelsea
, an historic Georgian
building. As the name suggests, the site was originally used to raise pheasants for the royal household. In the early 1900s it was the home of Eleanor Thornton, the favourite model of artist and sculptor Charles Sykes
. Thornton is believed to have been the model for Sykes' most famous work, his Rolls Royce
mascot the Spirit of Ecstasy
.
In the 1920s and 1930s it housed the studio of renowned dance teacher Serafina Astafieva
, who trained several of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
dancers and who taught prima ballerinas Alicia Markova
and Margot Fonteyn
. By the time Sharp moved in there, The Pheasantry was a well-known 'artists' colony', its rooms rented out as apartments and residential studio space. The basement also housed a nightclub which operated into the 1970s. The Pheasantry nightclub was the venue for early UK gigs by Lou Reed
, Queen
and Hawkwind
, among others, and was the place where singer Yvonne Elliman
was discovered by Andrew Lloyd Webber
and Tim Rice
, leading to her role in the original soundtrack recording of Jesus Christ Superstar
. The Pheasantry currently houses apartments, shops and a pizza restaurant, which has retained Madame Astafieva's mirrors and practice barre as a feature on the first floor.
Sharp shared this remarkable domicile with some remarkable people, including Eric Clapton (who moved in not long after Sharp did), Germaine Greer
, filmmaker Philippe Mora
, artist Tim Whidborne, prominent London "identity" David Litvinoff (later an adviser on the production of Nicolas Roeg
's Performance
), writer Anthony Haden-Guest
(author of The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco,and the Culture of the Night) and Martin's friend Robert Whitaker
, photographer of choice for many leading rock groups on the scene, including The Beatles
. Whitaker was already famous/infamous for the controversial "butcher" photo used on the original cover of the Beatles' album Yesterday and Today
.
Many years later, Sharp recalled the story of his meeting with Clapton:
Freed from the constraints of nine-to-five work thanks to a timely inheritance from an aunt, Sharp found himself at the centre of London's counter-cultural life and the Underground scene and quickly became one of its leading lights. When Richard Neville arrived in London in September, and he and Sharp joined forces with Felix Dennis
and jointly established London Oz, which soon proved itself even more controversial than its Australian parent. Sharp became its Art Director and chief cartoonist.
This period in London and his work with Oz brought him international renown. As well as his Oz artwork and his famed album covers for Cream, he produced famous posters of musicians—Bob Dylan, Donovan and his classic 'exploding' Jimi Hendrix
poster, based on a photo by Linda McCartney
. These and other works like the poster for the "Legalise Pot" rally are keynote graphic works of the period and originals are now highly prized collector's items.
This was followed by The Incredible Shrinking Exhibition, which comprised photographs of the first show re-exhibited in small gem-like mirror frames. These two exhibitions laid the foundations for the famous Yellow House
project of 1970-71. The house became a unique multimedia space, an art environment in which each room was an entire art work. The Yellow House was open 24 hours a day and had thousands of visitors between 1971 and 1973 when it closed.
Returning to London in 1972, Martin continued his interest with the idea of appropriation. He created "Art Book", another miniature production, approximately 5" x 6" in size and incorporating 36 colour collages cut from the pages of glossy art books, bringing together the work in single images of Magritte
and Van Gogh
, Matisse
and Magritte, Botticelli
and Picasso
with occasional overlays of Van Gogh on Van Gogh, Van Gogh on Botticelli, or Vermeer
on Vermeer.
Distributed in the United Kingdom, France and Italy in 1972, "Artbook" was released in Australian in 1973 to coincide with Sharp's return to Australia and his "Art Exhibition" at the Bonython Gallery, Sydney. The previous collage images were presented as completed paintings, returning them to their original medium. Extending viewer involvement, one work, Self Portrait was simply a mirror in an ornate gold frame while another more iconicised work was a linen, cheap reproduction of the Mona Lisa in an equally ornate gold frame, entitled Tea Towel.
During the mid-Seventies, Martin was probably best known in Australia for his work with the Nimrod Theatre, for whom he produced his famous series of posters, as well as designing numerous sets, costumes and scenery pieces. His famous Nimrod posters (now prized collectors' items) include his iconic poster for the plays Young Mo, The Venetian Twins, and Kold Komfort Kaffee. Sharp's rendering of the "Mo" face became the symbol of the Nimrod Theatre; and one of his best known images. In this period he also designed the classic cover for Jeannie Lewis
' debut album Free Fall Through Featherless Flight (1974).
Martin has designed at least two posters for Australia's premier contemporary circus, Circus Oz
including the iconic 'World Famous'/'Non-Stop Energy' design.
) -- and Tiny Tim.
A year later, as pressure mounted to redevelop the prime habourside site, an arson attack in the Luna Park Ghost Train
claimed seven lives including a father and his two sons. The Luna Park fire was a turning point in Sharp's life; like many others he firmly believes that the fire was a deliberate act of terrorism aimed at destroying the park and making the site available for redevelopment and in a 2010 interview on the ABC Radio National program The Spirit of Things, he revealed that the fire and the circumstances surrounding it had exerted a profound effect on his spiritual outlook.
Along with various other artist friends and sympathetic supporters, Sharp was instrumental in forming the Friends of Luna Park in an endeavour to lobby the State Government and remind Sydneysiders of what they stood to lose if the park was lost. Sharp's painting Snow Job was an expression of his feelings about this matter, and if it had not been for the efforts of Sharp and his friends and supporters, Sydney might have lost an important part of its character.
at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968 at the suggestion of Eric Clapton and since that time he has been one of Sharp's strongest inspirations.
Sharp's appreciation of Tiny Tim manifested itself in many ways, including record production, costume design. He created a five-metre painting now hanging in Macquarie University, painted during the mid-1970s with Tim Lewis. His Tiny Tim Opera House concert poster is one of his most memorable and collectible images.
His cherished Tiny Tim film project Street of Dreams is commemorated in the painting Film Script. He laboured for over a decade on this film and it almost forced him to sell his house to finance it. However, the story goes that on the eve of the sale, Sharp received a surprise cheque in the mail—it was a substantial royalty payment for his lyrics for "Tales Of Brave Ulysses
", which enabled him to continue working on the film without selling his house.
" signature. The origin of this image was the remarkable story of Sydney man Arthur Stace
, also known as "Mr Eternity". Stace was an illiterate former soldier, petty criminal and alcoholic who became a devout convert to Christianity
in 1930. For years after his conversion up until his death in 1967, Stace walked the streets of Sydney at night writing the single word "Eternity" on walls and footpaths in his unmistakable copperplate handwriting. For years Stace's identity remained unknown until it was finally revealed in a newspaper article in 1956. Sharp has perpetuated and celebrated Stace's work and message, and the 'Eternity' image has appeared in many of his works, including a poster celebrating Sydney's Haymarket
area, and a large canvas that first appeared in the Oxford Street window of a Sydney store in 1990. During the millennium celebrations in 2000, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up with the word "Eternity", as a tribute to the legacy of Arthur Stace made popular by Martin Sharp.
Sharp's work has been celebrated in many exhibitions including a special Yellow House exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW and most recently a major retrospective at the Museum of Sydney
which ran from October 2009 to March 2010.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Sharp has made contributions to Australian and international culture since the early 60s, and is hailed as Australia's foremost pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
ist. His famous psychedelic posters
Psychedelic art
Psychedelic art is any kind of visual artwork inspired by psychedelic experiences induced by drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The word "psychedelic" "mind manifesting". By that definition all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered "psychedelic"...
of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and others, rank as classics of the genre, alongside the work of Rick Griffin
Rick Griffin
Richard Alden Griffin was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in Zap Comix. Griffin was closely identified with the Grateful Dead, designing some of their best known...
, Hapshash and the Coloured Coat
Hapshash and the Coloured Coat
Hapshash and the Coloured Coat is the name of an influential British graphic design and avant-garde musical partnership between Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, producing psychedelic posters and two albums of underground music...
and Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
. His covers, cartoons and illustrations were a central feature of Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
magazine, both in Australia and in London. Martin co-wrote one of Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
's most famous songs, "Tales of Brave Ulysses
Tales of Brave Ulysses
"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a song performed by the 1960s group Cream. The lyrics were written by artist Martin Sharp, and the music was composed by Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce. Arranged by Robert Stigwood, the song is featured on Cream's album Disraeli Gears. Sharp had written the words on the...
", created the cover art for Cream's Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears is the second album by British supergroup Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK Albums Chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on the American charts...
and Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire is the name of a double album recorded by Cream. The release was largely successful, scoring the band a #3 peak in the United Kingdom and a #1 in the United States, and became the world's first platinum-selling double album....
albums, and in the 1970s, he became a champion of singer Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
, and of Sydney's embattled Luna Park
Luna Park Sydney
Luna Park Sydney is an amusement park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
.
Martin was born in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1942, and was educated at Cranbrook
Cranbrook School Sydney
Cranbrook School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay, both eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
private school, where one of his teachers was the noted artist Justin O'Brien. In 1960, Martin enrolled at the National Art School
National Art School
The National Art School is an art school in Sydney, Australia. It is a Public Company Limited by Guarantee with a board of directors. It has Institutional Registration and Course Accreditation supported by the DET Higher Education Directorate....
at East Sydney, where he began his artistic career contributing to the short-lived student magazine The Arty Wild Oat, along with fellow artists Garry Shead
Garry Shead
Garry Shead is an Australian artist and filmmaker who won the Archibald Prize in 1992/93 with a portrait of Tom Thompson, and won the Dobell Prize in 2004 with Colloquy with John Keats....
and John Firth Smith. He also submitted cartoons to The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
. In 1961, he enrolled for two terms in Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
at Sydney University before returning to the NAS.
Oz
In late 1963 or early 1964 Martin met Richard NevilleRichard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...
, editor of the University of NSW student magazine Tharunka
Tharunka
Tharunka is a student newspaper published at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Established in 1953 at the then New South Wales University of Technology, Tharunka has been published in a variety of forms by various student organisations...
, and Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh
Richard Walsh was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for the Mayo South constituency at the September 1927 general election...
, editor of its Sydney University counterpart Honi Soit
Honi Soit
Honi Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney, first published in 1929 and produced by an elected editorial team as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council...
. Both wanted to publish their own "magazine of dissent" and they asked Sharp and Shead to become contributors. The magazine was dubbed Oz. From 1963-65 Martin was its art director and a major contributor.
Sydney Oz hit the streets on April Fool's Day, 1963. Its irreverent attitude was in the tradition of the student newspapers, but it satirical and topical coverage of local and national issues and people developed a national profile, and made it a target for "the Establishment", and soon a prominent casualty of the so-called "Censorship Wars".
Martin held his first one-man exhibition at the Clune Galleries in Sydney, Australia in 1965. "Art for Mart's Sake" almost sold out on the opening night. One of the paintings exhibited also featured in Shead's James Bond spoof Blunderball, made earlier that year.
During the life of Australian Oz Sharp, Neville and Walsh were twice charged with printing an obscene publication. The first trial was relatively minor, and should have been a non-event, but they were poorly advised and pleaded guilty, which resulted in their convictions being recorded. As a result, when they were charged with obscenity a second time, their previous convictions meant that the new charges were considerably more serious.
The charges centred on two items in the early issues of Oz -- one was Sharp's ribald poem "The Word Flashed Around The Arms", which satirised the contemporary habit of youths gatecrashing parties; the other offending item was the famous photo (used on the cover of Oz #6) which depicted Neville and two friends pretending to urinate into a Tom Bass
Tom Bass
Thomas Dwyer Bass AM, was a renowned Australian sculptor. Born in Lithgow, New South Wales on 6 June 1916, he studied at the Dattilo Rubbo Art School and the National Art School and established the Tom Bass Sculpture School in Sydney in 1974. In 1988 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia...
sculptural wall fountain, set into the wall of the new P&O
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
office in Sydney, which had recently been opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
.
Sharp, Neville and Walsh were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Their convictions caused a public outcry and they were subsequently acquitted on appeal, but the so-called "Oz Three" realised that there was little future battling such strong opposition.
London
In 1966 Martin published a selection of cartoons in the book Martin Sharp Cartoons. "Swinging London" was the mecca for young artists, writers and musicians, and after the Oz trials, Sharp and Neville needed little encouragement to leave Australia. They set off on an overland trek through Asia, parting company in Kathmandu and making their separate ways to London.On arrival, Sharp stayed for a short time with Neville's sister, writer Jill Neville in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
. It was at this time that he was introduced to a musician in the famous London nightclub, The Speakeasy. During the evening Sharp told the musician about a poem he had recently written; the musician in turn told Martin that he was looking for a lyric for some new music he had just written. Sharp obligingly wrote out the poem and his address on a serviette and gave it to his new acquaintance.
The musician turned out to be acclaimed guitarist Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. The song that resulted from the meeting, "Tales of Brave Ulysses", was recorded as the B-side of Cream's smash hit "Strange Brew" and was included on Cream's second album Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears is the second album by British supergroup Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK Albums Chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on the American charts...
. His friendship with Clapton led to the commission to design the famous 'dayglo' psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
collage cover for that album, which included painted photographs by Sharp's friend Robert Whitaker
Robert Whitaker (photographer)
Robert Whitaker was a renowned British photographer, best known internationally for his many photographs of The Beatles, taken between 1964 and 1966, and for his photographs of the rock group Cream, which were used in the Martin Sharp-designed collage on the cover of their 1967 LP Disraeli...
, whom Sharp knew from Australia and whose studio was in the same building where Sharp lived.
The following year Sharp designed the spectacular gatefold sleeve for Cream's third album, the double LP set Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire is the name of a double album recorded by Cream. The release was largely successful, scoring the band a #3 peak in the United Kingdom and a #1 in the United States, and became the world's first platinum-selling double album....
(1968), for which he won the New York Art Directors Prize for Best Album Design in 1969. He also designed the cover for the eponymous debut L.P. of London underground legends Mighty Baby
Mighty Baby
Mighty Baby were formed in 1968 from the ashes of The Action. They released two albums, Mighty Baby and A Jug Of Love . Their debut, a collection of psychedelic rock, appeared on the tiny Head record label in the UK, and on Chess in the United States...
(1969).
The Pheasantry
Not long after his meeting with Clapton, Martin moved into The Pheasantry at 152 Kings RoadKings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
, Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, an historic Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
building. As the name suggests, the site was originally used to raise pheasants for the royal household. In the early 1900s it was the home of Eleanor Thornton, the favourite model of artist and sculptor Charles Sykes
Charles Sykes
Sir Charles Sykes, 1st Baronet, KBE was an English politician and wool merchant.Sykes entered the wool trade at a young age. During the First World War he served as Director of Wool Textile Production and as chairman of the Board of Control of the Worsted and Woollen Trades...
. Thornton is believed to have been the model for Sykes' most famous work, his Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
mascot the Spirit of Ecstasy
Spirit of Ecstasy
The Spirit of Ecstasy is the name of the hood ornament on Rolls-Royce cars. It is in the form of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind and above her...
.
In the 1920s and 1930s it housed the studio of renowned dance teacher Serafina Astafieva
Serafina Astafieva
Serafina Astafieva was a Russian dancer and ballet teacher.Astafieva was a pupil at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre School and in 1895 graduated from the Mariinsky Ballet School. In 1896 she married Jozef Kshessinsky a famous character dancer. From 1909-1911 Astafieva performed with Sergei Diaghilev's...
, who trained several of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
dancers and who taught prima ballerinas Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova
Dame Alicia Markova, DBE, DMus, was an English ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the...
and Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
. By the time Sharp moved in there, The Pheasantry was a well-known 'artists' colony', its rooms rented out as apartments and residential studio space. The basement also housed a nightclub which operated into the 1970s. The Pheasantry nightclub was the venue for early UK gigs by Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
and Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
, among others, and was the place where singer Yvonne Elliman
Yvonne Elliman
Yvonne Marianne Elliman is an American singer who performed for four years in the first cast of Jesus Christ Superstar...
was discovered by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
, leading to her role in the original soundtrack recording of Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
. The Pheasantry currently houses apartments, shops and a pizza restaurant, which has retained Madame Astafieva's mirrors and practice barre as a feature on the first floor.
Sharp shared this remarkable domicile with some remarkable people, including Eric Clapton (who moved in not long after Sharp did), Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, filmmaker Philippe Mora
Philippe Mora
Philippe Mora is a French-born Australian film director. Born in 1949 to a German Jewish father and a French Jewish mother, he began making films while still a child.- Career :...
, artist Tim Whidborne, prominent London "identity" David Litvinoff (later an adviser on the production of Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
's Performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
), writer Anthony Haden-Guest
Anthony Haden-Guest
Anthony Haden-Guest is a British-American writer, reporter, cartoonist, art critic, poet, and socialite who lives in New York and London. He is a frequent contributor to major magazines and has had several books published.-Family:...
(author of The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco,and the Culture of the Night) and Martin's friend Robert Whitaker
Robert Whitaker
Robert Whitaker or Whittaker may refer to:*Robert Whitaker , American author*Robert Whitaker , British photographer*Robert Whitaker , British showjumper*Robert Whittaker, American vegetation ecologist...
, photographer of choice for many leading rock groups on the scene, including The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Whitaker was already famous/infamous for the controversial "butcher" photo used on the original cover of the Beatles' album Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today is the ninth Capitol release by The Beatles and the eleventh overall American release. It was issued only in the United States and Canada...
.
Many years later, Sharp recalled the story of his meeting with Clapton:
"I visited the Speakeasy ClubSpeakeasy ClubThe Speakeasy Club, 48 Margaret Street, London, England, was a late-night haunt for the music industry from 1966 to the late 1970s. The club was first managed Roy Flynn, who then became the manager of Yes. Tony Howard then became manager, having previously been the main artist booker from The Bryan...
in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
one evening (1967). I saw a girl I knew, Charlotte, who was sitting at a table with two young men who I didn't know. Being alone I asked if I could join them and I was made welcome. I remember that there was a discussion about a controversial article which had appeared in The Idealist concerning the assassination of President KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. I gathered that the young men were musicians and as I had just written a poem which I thought would make a good song, I mentioned this fact, and one of the musicians replied that he had just written some music. In grand show business tradition I wrote the lyrics on a paper serviette and gave them to him with my address. I was sharing a studio off the Kings Road Chelsea with the photographer, Bob Whitaker, at the time. I was pleasantly surprised when the musician, who turned out to be Eric Clapton, arrived at the studio with a 45 r.p.m. record with "Strange Brew" on the A-side and my song, "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on the B-side."
"Soon after I moved to a nearby studio in "The Pheasantry", Kings Road, Chelsea, and needing someone to share with I asked my new friend if he would care to share the space and experience. Chelsea was an exciting place to live and Eric agreed. (David Litvinoff, a well-known and extraordinary character in the music and art world had found the studio.) It was a perfect place to work and live. Charlotte eventually moved in with Eric. Later we were joined by my girlfriend, Eija, and a young friend from Melbourne, painter and filmmaker, Philippe Mora, and his girlfriend, Freya. David Litvinoff worked in Tim Whidbornes' studio downstairs... Anthony Haden-Guest had a flat there...Germaine Greer was writing "The Female Eunuch" in a room there... there were photographic studios...it was quite a special and creative building...it was called "The Pheasantry" because in the old days the land had been used for breeding pheasants for the King's table.
"Eric asked me to design the cover for "Disraeli Gears". I loved record cover art and was very happy to do it. I commissioned my ex-studio mate, Bob Whitaker, to take some photos which were used in a collage on the back cover. I believe the photo used on the cover was a publicity shot that I got from Eric. I was using fluorescent paints at the time. It was the height of psychedelia.
"Some of the ingredients in the cover are made up from Victorian decorative engravings. It was done in black and white first and then painted with fluorescent colors. I tried to capture the warm joyful liveliness of Cream's songs. I later went on to design the cover for "Wheels Of Fire" for Cream and also for Ginger Baker's "Airforce", a band called Mighty Baby...Jeannie Lewis' "Free Fall Through Featherless Flight" and a few of my own releases of Tiny Tim, "Chameleon", "Keeping My Troubles To Myself", and "The World Non-Stop Singing Record."
"In the basement of The Pheasantry was a club of the same name and often one's sleep was disturbed by the R&B bass notes...so I was reacting by listening to a lot of old songs that had been re-released. Al Jolson, Al Bowly... the dance bands of the war years and earlier. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and "Hutch" (Leslie Hutchinson). Eric had seen Tiny Tim perform at The Scene in New York City and knowing I loved the old songs he urged me to go and see Tiny in his first London performance at the Royal Albert Hall. I'd never heard Tiny before and I was completely amazed by his extraordinary, joyful persona and his absolute mastery over the whole language of popular song. I felt I would love to work with him, but thought he was destined to the heights of stardom. I never felt the opportunity would arise. Over twenty years later I write this on letterhead from the film, "Street of Dreams" I have been making with Tiny over the last 12 years, thinking of the hundreds of songs and conversations I have recorded with him over the years. Thus was my entry into the world of popular song.
"The meeting of musician and artist directly without intermediaries is, and always has and will be, a fruitful one. Such was the goodwill that existed in London during the late '60's that a painter from Australia could meet a great musician from England and informally give him some lyrics which would become a song, a friendship, a career with Tiny Tim, and a record cover."
Freed from the constraints of nine-to-five work thanks to a timely inheritance from an aunt, Sharp found himself at the centre of London's counter-cultural life and the Underground scene and quickly became one of its leading lights. When Richard Neville arrived in London in September, and he and Sharp joined forces with Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis is a British magazine publisher, poet, and philanthropist. His privately owned company, Dennis Publishing, pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom...
and jointly established London Oz, which soon proved itself even more controversial than its Australian parent. Sharp became its Art Director and chief cartoonist.
This period in London and his work with Oz brought him international renown. As well as his Oz artwork and his famed album covers for Cream, he produced famous posters of musicians—Bob Dylan, Donovan and his classic 'exploding' Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
poster, based on a photo by Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
. These and other works like the poster for the "Legalise Pot" rally are keynote graphic works of the period and originals are now highly prized collector's items.
Solo projects
In 1969 Sharp held his second solo exhibition at the Sigi Krauss Gallery. Entitled "Sharp Martin and his Silver Scissors" it featured collages based on famous works of art. He returned to Australia later that year, taking up residency in the old Clune Galleries. Thelma Clune, the director, had decided to sell the building, but there was no rush for the sale, and under the watchful eye of mutual friend "Charlie" Brown, Sharp presented his first exhibition after his return.This was followed by The Incredible Shrinking Exhibition, which comprised photographs of the first show re-exhibited in small gem-like mirror frames. These two exhibitions laid the foundations for the famous Yellow House
Yellow House Artist Collective
The Yellow House was an artists' collective in Sydney, Australia started by artist Martin Sharp. Between 1970 and 1973, The Yellow House, in Macleay Street near Kings Cross, was a piece of living art and a mecca to pop art. The canvas was the house itself and almost every wall, floor and ceiling...
project of 1970-71. The house became a unique multimedia space, an art environment in which each room was an entire art work. The Yellow House was open 24 hours a day and had thousands of visitors between 1971 and 1973 when it closed.
Returning to London in 1972, Martin continued his interest with the idea of appropriation. He created "Art Book", another miniature production, approximately 5" x 6" in size and incorporating 36 colour collages cut from the pages of glossy art books, bringing together the work in single images of Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
and Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Magritte, Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...
and Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
with occasional overlays of Van Gogh on Van Gogh, Van Gogh on Botticelli, or Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
on Vermeer.
"I have never been shy about cutting things up if I had a good idea. To me it was worth the price of a book for the idea it expressed, the interconnecting of different worlds. I could put a GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
figure in a Van Gogh landscape, make the composition work, and also say something about their relationship."
Distributed in the United Kingdom, France and Italy in 1972, "Artbook" was released in Australian in 1973 to coincide with Sharp's return to Australia and his "Art Exhibition" at the Bonython Gallery, Sydney. The previous collage images were presented as completed paintings, returning them to their original medium. Extending viewer involvement, one work, Self Portrait was simply a mirror in an ornate gold frame while another more iconicised work was a linen, cheap reproduction of the Mona Lisa in an equally ornate gold frame, entitled Tea Towel.
During the mid-Seventies, Martin was probably best known in Australia for his work with the Nimrod Theatre, for whom he produced his famous series of posters, as well as designing numerous sets, costumes and scenery pieces. His famous Nimrod posters (now prized collectors' items) include his iconic poster for the plays Young Mo, The Venetian Twins, and Kold Komfort Kaffee. Sharp's rendering of the "Mo" face became the symbol of the Nimrod Theatre; and one of his best known images. In this period he also designed the classic cover for Jeannie Lewis
Jeannie Lewis
Jeannie Lewis is an Australian musician and stage performer whose work covers many different styles such as folk, jazz, Latin, blues, opera, rock, fusion. Her music often includes a strong social consciousness and she is capable of making very strong political statements in her work.-Early...
' debut album Free Fall Through Featherless Flight (1974).
Martin has designed at least two posters for Australia's premier contemporary circus, Circus Oz
Circus Oz
Circus Oz was founded in December 1977, with its first performance season in March 1978. Circus Oz was the amalgamation of two already well-known groups - Soapbox Circus, a roadshow set up by the Australian Performing Group in 1976, and the New Ensemble Circus, a continuation of the New Circus,...
including the iconic 'World Famous'/'Non-Stop Energy' design.
Later interests
For the most of the 1970s and beyond, Sharp's work and life was dominated by two major interests—Sydney's Luna Park (located across the water from the Sharp's home in Bellevue HillBellevue Hill, New South Wales
Bellevue Hill is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bellevue Hill is an affluent suburb, located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra....
) -- and Tiny Tim.
Luna Park
Sharp's involvement with the restoration of Luna Park in the 1970s proved a bittersweet experience. He was engaged as designer and artist to oversee the restoration of Luna Park, including a commission to renovate the enormous laughing face at the entrance; he also painted a large eye with a reflective pupil on the inside of the gate, but this was subsequently painted over. In 1978, he and fellow artist/designer Richard Liney (who had participated in the reconstruction of Luna Park, also an avid collector of memorabilia), loaned their combined collection of hundreds of fairground, circus, Luna Park and sideshow artefacts to the Art Gallery of NSW to coincide with the Festival of Sydney.A year later, as pressure mounted to redevelop the prime habourside site, an arson attack in the Luna Park Ghost Train
Ghost Train (Luna Park Sydney)
The Sydney Ghost Train fire was a fire that destroyed the ghost train amusement ride at Luna Park Sydney on the night of 9 June 1979. Inadequate fire-fighting measures and low staffing caused the fire to completely destroy the ride, which was first constructed in 1931, and had been transported from...
claimed seven lives including a father and his two sons. The Luna Park fire was a turning point in Sharp's life; like many others he firmly believes that the fire was a deliberate act of terrorism aimed at destroying the park and making the site available for redevelopment and in a 2010 interview on the ABC Radio National program The Spirit of Things, he revealed that the fire and the circumstances surrounding it had exerted a profound effect on his spiritual outlook.
Along with various other artist friends and sympathetic supporters, Sharp was instrumental in forming the Friends of Luna Park in an endeavour to lobby the State Government and remind Sydneysiders of what they stood to lose if the park was lost. Sharp's painting Snow Job was an expression of his feelings about this matter, and if it had not been for the efforts of Sharp and his friends and supporters, Sydney might have lost an important part of its character.
Tiny Tim
Sharp first saw performer Tiny TimTiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968 at the suggestion of Eric Clapton and since that time he has been one of Sharp's strongest inspirations.
"Tim's appropriation of song is very much like my appropriation of images. We are both collagists taking the elements of different epochs and mixing them to discover new relationships."
Sharp's appreciation of Tiny Tim manifested itself in many ways, including record production, costume design. He created a five-metre painting now hanging in Macquarie University, painted during the mid-1970s with Tim Lewis. His Tiny Tim Opera House concert poster is one of his most memorable and collectible images.
His cherished Tiny Tim film project Street of Dreams is commemorated in the painting Film Script. He laboured for over a decade on this film and it almost forced him to sell his house to finance it. However, the story goes that on the eve of the sale, Sharp received a surprise cheque in the mail—it was a substantial royalty payment for his lyrics for "Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Tales of Brave Ulysses
"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a song performed by the 1960s group Cream. The lyrics were written by artist Martin Sharp, and the music was composed by Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce. Arranged by Robert Stigwood, the song is featured on Cream's album Disraeli Gears. Sharp had written the words on the...
", which enabled him to continue working on the film without selling his house.
"Eternity"
Another recurring element in Martin's work is the now-famous "EternityEternity (graffito)
The word Eternity was a graffito tag which had its origins in Melbourne, Australia, though it has been erroneously attributed as an invention of Sydney man Arthur Stace. The Melbourne Herald newspaper recalled on 20 June 1930 a local eccentric who travelled the suburbs 'adorning all the walls he...
" signature. The origin of this image was the remarkable story of Sydney man Arthur Stace
Arthur Stace
Arthur Malcolm Stace , otherwise known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian reformed alcoholic who converted to Christianity and spread his form of gospel by writing the word "Eternity'" in chalk on footpaths in Sydney over a period of approximately 35 years...
, also known as "Mr Eternity". Stace was an illiterate former soldier, petty criminal and alcoholic who became a devout convert to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in 1930. For years after his conversion up until his death in 1967, Stace walked the streets of Sydney at night writing the single word "Eternity" on walls and footpaths in his unmistakable copperplate handwriting. For years Stace's identity remained unknown until it was finally revealed in a newspaper article in 1956. Sharp has perpetuated and celebrated Stace's work and message, and the 'Eternity' image has appeared in many of his works, including a poster celebrating Sydney's Haymarket
Haymarket, New South Wales
Haymarket is a locality of Sydney's city centre, New South Wales, Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney....
area, and a large canvas that first appeared in the Oxford Street window of a Sydney store in 1990. During the millennium celebrations in 2000, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up with the word "Eternity", as a tribute to the legacy of Arthur Stace made popular by Martin Sharp.
Sharp's work has been celebrated in many exhibitions including a special Yellow House exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW and most recently a major retrospective at the Museum of Sydney
Museum of Sydney
The Museum of Sydney, on the Site of First Government House is built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor, Arthur Phillip on the present-day corner of Phillip and Bridge Street, Sydney. The original house, which was Australia's first Government House, was built in 1788 and...
which ran from October 2009 to March 2010.
See also
- Martin Sharp - Profile at MILESAGO
- Hapshash and the Coloured CoatHapshash and the Coloured CoatHapshash and the Coloured Coat is the name of an influential British graphic design and avant-garde musical partnership between Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, producing psychedelic posters and two albums of underground music...