$9,375
A pencil, airbrush and gouache on canvas Grateful Dead artwork by Stanley Mouse, 1972. Signed by Mouse in the lower right with a small drawing of a mouse included. The image is of a skeleton jester holding a lute/mandolin, which was used on the cover of The Grateful Dead Songbook (Ice Nine Publishing, 1973) that shows the same jester dressed in green instead of yellow; the songbook accompanies this lot. The jester was a strong icon for the band at that time. The image recalls the jester Yorick, whose skull was contemplated over by Hamlet. But in this image the skulled jester appears to be contemplating the viewer. The roses in the lower right refer to another piece of Grateful Dead iconography: the Skeleton and Roses poster that Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley designed for the Grateful Dead's performance at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966 (FD-26). The airbrush work seen here is a testament to Mouse's superior handling of that medium. At the start of his career, Mouse was airbrushing designs on T-shirts on demand at fairs and carnivals, and this honed his airbrushing skills. Also accompanied by a copy of Freehand : The Art of Stanley Mouse (Berkeley: SLG Books, 1993), signed by Mouse on the title page. This artwork can be seen on page 76 of the book. Framed, 47 1/2 by 39 inches; Image, 37 1/2 by 29 inches Categories:
Auctioneer:
Juliens Auctions
Date:
2013-12-06
