Sid Vicious 'I'm a Mess'

BOB GRUEN (B. 1945)

Sid Vicious, 'I'm a Mess', San Antonio, TX, 1978

signed and dated 'Bob Gruen' (lower margin)

cibachrome print

image: 11 x 6 inches (27.9 x 15.2 cm)

sheet: 16 x 20 inches (40.6 x 50.8 cm)

Executed in 1978. Printed in 1999. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed and dated by the artist.

One of Bob Gruen's defining images of the Sex Pistols' 1978 US tour — and one of the most recognizable photographs in the history of British punk: Sid Vicious, face smeared with ketchup and mustard, grinning beside a hot dog at a Texas sound check, a button on his leather jacket reading "I'm a Mess." The image was staged by Vicious himself: when Gruen raised the camera at the pair's shared meal, Sid paused, fetched more condiments, and smeared them deliberately across his face and the hot dog before the shutter clicked.

Gruen had joined the tour by accident. Originally saying goodbye to Malcolm McLaren after the Atlanta opening show, he was invited onto the bus when McLaren counted eleven people on the manifest and realized he had room for one more. He stayed for the full American run — seven performed dates, 70 rolls of film — producing the most extensive and intimate body of photographic work on the Sex Pistols in their final weeks together.

Now held in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the image has become one of the canonical visual documents of the era. It was subsequently used by Virgin Records as the source for the promotional poster of the band's 1979 single "C'mon Everybody" — Sid Vicious's cover of the Eddie Cochran standard, released as part of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, see lot 53.

PROVENANCE:

From the studio of Bob Gruen