STUART SUTCLIFFE (British 1940-1962)

Untitled, 1960

Footnotes

Provenance
Stuart Sutcliffe Yea, Yea, Yea - Curated by Richard Prince, Harper's Books, New York, 2013
Acquired directly in advance of the above exhibition by the present owner

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was foremost an abstract artist and is best known for being the founding bass guitarist in the Beatles. He joined the group, when it was a five piece in their formative years, playing alongside John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best.

This abstract painting by Stuart was acquired prior to the opening of the 2013 Stuart Sutcliffe Yea Yea Yea exhibition at Harper's Gallery, a show curated by artist Richard Prince, which included his paintings and works on paper. Prior to this Stuart's family had worked with Harper Levine, having exhibited Stuart's work with him previously. Through their continued relationship the family looked to Harper as to how best to continue to manage Stuart's art and archive. According to them, Prince contacted Harper Levine directly expressing his desire to work with the Estate. Through these conversations the 2013 retrospective was selected.

Sutcliffe moved with his family down from Edinburgh when he was three years old and spent a childhood growing up in Liverpool. A true creative, with both musical and artistic talents, he enrolled at Liverpool College of Art. It was there that he was introduced to John Lennon. The pair hit it off and formed a deep artistic appreciation. It was this friendship that drew Lennon and McCartney to encourage Stuart to join the band taking on the role of bass player which neither wanted to do. They managed to talk Stuart into buying a new Hofner bass with the £90 he was paid by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. John Moore's purchased one of Sutcliffe's works, Summer Painting (1959). He obliged and Stuart joined the fledgling band and began playing (with very little experience) at the clubs in Merseyside. This exposure then enabled the group to make their now infamous trips to Germany to hone their skills by performing on stage at the Reeperbahn during the latter part of 1960, and with Stuart until he left the band in mid-1961. The black and white photograph used to illustrate this lot is of the group who were relatively unknown at the time and far from world stardom. It shows Stuart wearing his trademark black Ray-Ban sunglasses with slicked back hair. It was taken in Hamburg during a rare moment when the group was not on stage, shot by Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart's girlfriend at the time.

The relationship with existentialist photographer Kirchherr and Sutcliffe played an integral part in his movement from music, back to focusing solely on being an artist. The pair fell very deeply for each other and quickly got engaged in November 1960. By the middle of 1961 he decided not to continue with the Beatles after being awarded a scholarship to Hochschule für bildende Künste, the Hamburg College of Art, to follow his dream of becoming an artist. While there he studied under visiting professor Eduardo Paolozzi who has been quoted as saying Sutcliffe was one of his most intelligent and finest students.

Unexpectedly from February 1962 Stuart started to develop debilitating headaches, even collapsing on occasions and losing some of his vision. The cause was never identified, although he did seek a diagnosis and tragically on the 10th April of the same year he collapsed while out with Astrid. In the ambulance on the way to hospital he died before arrival with Astrid at his side, the cause of death registered as cerebral haemorrhage. He was twenty-one years old, with his life, career and true love ahead of him. His family, all in England at the time, and the Beatles were devastated by the tragic news of his untimely death.