Ian Curtis Heart and Soul

Dimensions: 24 x 18 Inches

Medium: Screen print on thick cream Speckletone paper.

Provenance: Signed, numbered and dated by Shepard Fairey and Kevin Cummins. Comes with Verisart digital blockchain certificate of authenticity.

Edition: Limited Edition of 500 (#56/500)

Year: 2023

Condition: Excellent

ABOUT THE ART

"I first discovered Joy Division through my friend Jay Haley in 1985-86. Jay was a little more open-minded than I was, so he was listening to aggressive punk and hardcore, but also, more moody music like The Smiths, The Cure, early Cult, and Joy Division. I initially liked some of Joy Division’s melodies, but I generally found the music a bit cold, sparse, and haunting on the verge of depressing. However, the music grew on me over time and the qualities I just described as liabilities became assets. As I grew out of my punk rock orthodoxy phase I realized no band sounded quite like Joy Division. My love of Joy Division has only grown over the years along with my appreciation for their imagery. Joy Division’s image of elegant austerity is often connected to their artwork by Peter Saville, but a lot of credit should go to Kevin Cumminsfor his noir portraits of the band. I’ve loved Cummin’s photography for years, so I was delighted when he agreed to collaborate on a portrait of Ian Curtis, Joy Division’s singer who took his own life in 1980 at 23. Curtis was a unique singer but also a powerful lyricist, so the lyrics to the song Heart and Soul are woven through the art along with an angular divide through Curtis’s figure symbolizing the tension between heart and soul. Since Kevin actually knew Ian, I appreciated that he would allow me to interpret his iconic photo!"

– Shepard Fairey

"Whenever I photographed Ian, I wanted to capture his intensity. My brief (to myself) was to portray Ian, and the other members of Joy Division, as serious young men. They were serious about their music of course, but mostly they were typical of young lads everywhere, in that they were relatively carefree. Ian always seemed different. His intensity shines though his face and his piercing eyes. That’s what I always hoped to achieve with my photos, and the fact that they still resonate so strongly, bears testimony to that."

– Kevin Cummins

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (…OBEY…) sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, specifically his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.