Richard Neville and portrait
Martin Sharp & Neville Wran
One of the nation's true eccentrics, artist Martin Sharp has been given his first retrospective exhibition by the National Trust at the Sydney Museum. Sharp designed record album sleeves for 1960's greats like Cream and Jimi Hendrix and was the illustrator for the infamous Oz Magazine which landed many of it's originators including Sharp in jail twice-in Australia and England. In both the highly publicized cases the defendants were finally released upon appeal and in the course of the trials helped relax strict censorship laws in both countries.
The English trial defending barrister was a young Geoffrey Robertson QC-now a pillar of the British establishment whilst in Sydney another bright young barrister Neville Wran QC helped free the accused.Wran, now in his 80s and a darling of the left went onto to become NSW premier for many years and launched Sharp's show with a speech about the trial , describing the jailing magistrate as a 'mongrel' to much applause.
No Sharp exhibition would be complete without works based on the showman Tiny Tim whom Sharp helped launch into stardom.
