GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY 2009: Martin Sharp

Regarded as this country's most prominent Pop artist, Martin Sharp has made significant contributions to Australian culture since the early 6Os, with his posters and record covers in particular receiving international recognition.Martin was born in Sydney in 1944 and was educated at Cranbrook private school, where his teachers was the noted artist Justin O'Brien. In 1960 Martin enrolled at the National Art School at East Sydney, where began his artistic career, contributing to the shortlied student magazine The Arty Wild Oat, along with fellow artists Garry Shead and John Firth Smith. He also began submitting cartoons to The Bulletin. In 1961 he enrolled for two terms in Architecture at Sydney University before returning to the NAS.

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 also co-wrote one of Cream's most famous songs, "Tales of Brave Ulysses", and in the 1970s he became a champion of singer Tiny Tim, and of Sydney's embattled Luna Park.

In late 1963 or early 1964 Martin met Richard Neville, 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 and from 1963-65 Martin was its art director and a major contributor.

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.

In 1966 Martin published a selection of cartoons in the book Martin Sharp Cartoons.It was at this time that he was introduced to Eric Clapton in the famous London nightclub, The Speakeasy. During the evening Sharp told Clapton about a poem he had recently written, 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 overpainted 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).

Martin shared his remarkable domicile Pheasantry with some remarkable people, Eric Clapton, Germaine Greer, filmmaker Phillippe Mora, artist Tim Whidbourne, prominent London "identity" David Litvinoff , writer Anthony Haden-Guest and Martin's friend Robert Whitaker, photographer.

Distributed in the United Kingdom, France and Italy in 1972, "Artbook" was released in Australian in 1973 to coincide with Martin'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 for his work with the Nimrod Theatre, for whom he produced his famous series of Nimrod 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 play "Young Mo". Sharp's rendering of the "Mo" face became the symbol of the Nimrod Theatre and one of Martin's best known images. In this period he also designed the classic cover for Jeannie Lewis' debut album Free Fall Through Featherless Flight (1974).For the most of the 1970s andbeyond, 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 Hill) -- and Tiny Tim.Like much of Martin's work this painting has to do with ideas, the intellect, refined composition and colour. What else would one expect from an artist whose influences are the "History of Art", Vincent Van Gogh, Tiny Tim, icons of contemporary culture, the Bible, other great books, songs and more songs, and whose landscape is that of the imagination?