Ronnie Wood
Musician, Painter |
In 1986 Phil Carson, a good friend, contacted us. He had a new “project” in mind and wanted to discuss how SFAE might be involved. Phil has been known in the world of rock and roll for decades, having worked with and managed some of the top names in rock since the late 1960’s.
The “project”, it turned out, happened to be SFAE’s participation in a series of exhibitions with
Ronnie Wood and his artwork that would begin at Christie's in London, appear at numerous galleries across the US and conclude at Christie’s in Tokyo. Ronnie was also just completing a book, The Works, about his life, career and various influences. The book would be illustrated by his own artwork and its release would coincide with the traveling exhibition of his art.
James Brown, etching
© Ronnie Wood |
As a well connected music insider, Phil was asked by Ronnie and his manager, Nick Cowan, to coordinate a multi-city - and a multi-dimensional - tour that included book signing appearances, art exhibitions and music performances by Ronnie and Bo Diddley at venues throughout the United States. The tour would launch in 1987 and the art exhibitions would be comprised of paintings,
drawings, monotypes, woodcuts and
drypoint etchings that Ronnie had produced over many years. A new set of limited edition silkscreen art prints called
Decades, co-published by Christie's, would also be part of every exhibition.
Of all exhibitions that took place, nearly a dozen or so, the largest exhibitions took place in London, Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. Ronnie’s artwork was well received wherever it was exhibited. Aside from his obvious fame and popularity as a musician, enthusiastic reaction was registered everywhere that his work was seen. The diversity of well executed techniques in drafting, painting, and printmaking were quite eye opening for those who did not at first know what to expect. Critical observations that Ronnie’s artistic spontaneity coupled with his disciplined technical skill began the serious inquiry by art collectors with which we are more familiar today.
Conversation Piece
© Ronnie Wood |
Ronnie has spent virtually his whole professional life in the mode of a kind of proactive audacity; a creative fearlessness armed with an instinctive respect for pursuing technical excellence. The seemingly effortlessness of his drawings of a variety of subjects, the most challenging subjects being immediately recognizable personalities, demonstrates his intrinsic abilities as a visual artist.
Eric Clapton III
© Ronnie Wood |
As a quick example, if an artist produces a portrait of someone who no one, outside of friends and family, would recognize on public display then success or failure to convey what that person looks like or who that person “is” through their portrait would not be apparent to anyone else. Failure or even liberties taken in the portrait would be unseen and unknown. On the other hand, if the portrait produced is of
Keith Richards or
Eric Clapton, success or failure would be obvious within a few seconds, the exact amount of time an artist would have to prove their ability. Ronnie operates on that artistic high wire regularly and confidently, since he has successfully produced portraits of innumerable well known personalities over many years. These famous faces usually belong to people who also happen to be among Ronnie’s own “friends and family” as well - a truly uncommon combination for most artists.
After the first exhibition we held in 1987, Phil, Nick and Ronnie asked us make efforts to build and maintain a regular presence of Ronnie’s artwork in multiple galleries across the US and Canada. Our first joint effort in 1988 was in connection to Ronnie’s portraits of Eric Clapton that his friend, Eric, commissioned him to produce for his landmark album, Crossroads, the definitive collection of Clapton’s work up to that time. The cover portrait of Eric on the box set as well as the portrait on title page of the accompanying book are both by Ronnie and were published as limited edition serigraphs, a portion of each edition being co-signed by Eric himself.
Since those early days, our own sales of Ronnie’s artwork now approach ten million dollars and we have observed the evolution of a collector market that has grown worldwide resulting in many tens of millions of dollars in sales in scores of countries.
Nearly twenty-five years have passed since our first exhibition together.
Ronnie has always been supportive, kind, generous and enthusiastic over all this time and we appreciate his longstanding trust and friendship.
