Painting that adorned classic album to be sold
The photo-painting Kerze by the German artist Gerhard Richter, is expected to exceed its £2.5m auction guide price thanks to the popularity of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation
By Jonathan Brown
Monday, 18 February 2008
The painting that illustrated one of the most famous album covers in pop history is to be sold at auction. Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation scarcely troubled the charts when it was released in 1988 but has since been recognised as a rock masterpiece, regularly featuring in best album lists.
Later this month, fans of Eighties nostalgia will also have the chance to buy the art that gave the record one of the classiest covers ever produced.
The photo-painting, Kerze (Candle), is the work of avant-garde German artist Gerhard Richter. The original canvas will be put up for sale at Sotheby's in London next week and is likely to sell for several times its catalogue price of £2.5m.
Recently, Richter's canvases have sold at auction in the United States for up to £6.5m. Experts believe that Kerze, given its association with the ultra-hip New York band, will be a "potential flyer" for the elderly German painter.
According to Francis Outred, head of evening auctions and private sales of contemporary art at Sotheby's, the work will strongly appeal to collectors who came of age in the 1980s and now find themselves with a few million pounds to their name.
"There are a lot of collectors out there who grew up loving these pieces and now have the opportunity to buy them," he said.
"This is a unique collaboration of a painter that people want with an album cover by one of the greatest American bands of all time. The fact this is the very picture that was used – taken from a series of 20 paintings – makes it even more special."
Mr Outred explained that Richter never intended his work to be used to accompany the music and had almost certainly never heard of the band.
Nevertheless, the association had added considerable artistic cache to the group and created one of the "greatest album covers of all time".
The 3ft by 3ft canvas is part of a series of paintings completed when Richter was at the height of his power. It is one of five major works to go on sale and was based on a photograph taken in the artist's Dusseldorf studio.
After experimenting with Pop Art in the 1960s, Richter rejected the conventional painting of items in nature. Instead, inspired by his experience as a darkroom assistant and his passion for photography, he began to paint images that he said had "no style, no concept, no judgement".
According to Mr Outred, Kurze takes a timeless romantic symbol and brings it powerfully up to date. The candle itself alludes to the "fragility and mortality" of human experience – a theme accentuated by the application of Richter's "blurring" technique in which he would take a small dry brush to soften the wet paint.
Daydream Nation was the sixth major work by Sonic Youth.
Last year, the band re-released a deluxe version of the double album, complete with live versions and extra studio material. They have also embarked on a world tour, performing the album in its entirety.
Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction, London, 27 February