Beatles pictures rediscovered by
Sir Paul McCartney
During the lockdown, items that are over 60 years old are now being sold for prices exceeding £60,000.
Enthusiasts of the Fab Four will have the opportunity to buy prints of photographs captured by the 82-year-old singer when the band.
captivated the nation in 1963
.
In the 1960s, he purchased a compact 35mm Pentax SLR camera prior to taking a flight with Pan Am to the United States for their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Macca documented joyful instances during the journey, starting with the plane ride to New York and including strolls through Central Park all the way up until their stay in Miami prior to his appearance on the program.
Sir Paul stumbled upon contact sheets, slides, and negatives during the pandemic—a collection he had sealed in boxes and hadn’t thought about for six decades.
They were first exhibited in the Eye of the Storm show, which made its debut at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2023.
Following its success, McCartney opted to bring these visuals around the world.
The exhibition called “Rearview Mirror: Photographs, December 1963-February 1964” is presently being showcased at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills up till June 21.
Individual photographs and contact sheets with multiple frames are part of the 36 pieces available for purchase in highly restricted print runs ranging from six to ten signed copies each. These artworks have price tags varying between £11,300 and more than £64,000.
The photographs consist of both color prints and black-and-white images. They feature various scenes such as self-portraits, moments capturing Beatlemania, and pictures taken from inside moving vehicles during different public appearances.
‘Images of a common wonder’
Joshua Chuang, who directs the gallery at the Beverly Hills location, informed The Hollywood Reporter, “While there is some similarity between these images and those from ‘Eye of the Storm,’ they appear distinct in our exhibition. Indeed, the major distinction lies in the opportunity for visitors to buy them.”
This is the sole instance I can recall where an individual with such significant cultural influence managed to capture excellent photographs precisely when he should have been taking them.
There’s nearly an air of collective astonishment in his photographs, as though even the subjects themselves were incredulous at what was transpiring.
He stated, “Paul isn’t aiming to embark on a new career as a fine-art photographer. Only limited editions—six, eight, possibly ten prints—are produced, and that’s all.”
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Sir Paul was motivated to explore painting after conversing with the Dutch expressionist artist Willem de Kooning during the early ’80s. The Beatles member exhibited his artwork in 2000 at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol and subsequently at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 2002—nearly twenty years prior to when his creations were shown at another venue.
National Portrait Gallery
, London, in 2023.
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