Bad Brains Punk Showcase

SHEPARD FAIREY (B. 1970)

Bad Brains Punk Showcase

signed, dated and numbered by the artist

silkscreen on wood panel

24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

Executed in 2013. This work is number 1 from an edition of 6.

Shepard Fairey's portrait of Bad Brains, drawing on the band's legendary Punk Showcase performances at Washington, D.C. venues including Madam's Organ in the late 1970s. Bad Brains — H.R., Dr. Know, Darryl Jenifer and Earl Hudson — defined the sound of American hardcore at its most accelerated, alongside Minor Threat, Black Flag and the wider Dischord-orbit groups; H.R.'s standing-jump silhouette became the totem image of the band's live performance, and is the figure at the centre of Fairey's composition here, framed within the artist's typographic banners and ornamental groundwork.

The present work is from the smaller wood-panel edition of six — silkscreened by the artist over a hand-prepared birch panel ground. Number 1 in the edition.

PROVENANCE:

From the artist's studio