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  • Birthday: February 4, 1948

Original artworks by noted psychedelic artists go to auction in NYC

Wed May 14, 6:43 PM PDT

NEW YORK - A collection of original art by noted psychedelic artists, depicting some of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll, fetched about $795,000 at an auction Wednesday, a spokesman for the auction house said.

Paintings, printing plates, ink drawings and painted cel vinyls of the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and many other iconic artists were represented in the Peter Golding collection at Bonhams New York auction house. The 164 items included original artworks that led to final album covers and concert posters.

Golding, a British designer of the first stretch jeans, embarked on his collection after picking up a hand-drawn poster at a 1967 "happening" in London's Hyde Park. He acquired many of the works from the studio files of 1960s poster artists, including Rick Griffin, considered the genre's grand master, Gary Grimshaw, Alton Kelley, Dennis Larkins and Stanley 'Mouse' Miller.

The auction's top seller - an acrylic on canvas, by Griffin, for the Grateful Dead's 'Without a Net' tour poster - sold for $114,000, said Bonhams spokesman Levi Morgan. It had been expected to bring a price of $125,000 to $175,000.

Among the other highlights was a 1987 Pink Floyd framed painting, signed by Kelley and commissioned by the band as a poster for the "Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour. The painting, expected to sell for $25,000 to $35,000, went for $24,000, Morgan said.

A mixed media on board by Miller and Kelley for the Grateful Dead's unrealized Terrapin Station concert hall fetched $90,000, Morgan said. Its pre-sale estimate was $100,000 to $150,000.

A rarity that had been expected to fetch $250,000 to $350,000 - an uncut printer's poster for the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland in 1968 in San Francisco - wasn't sold, Morgan said.

Other bands and performers represented in the artworks included Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Eric Clapton, The Sex Pistols, The Who, Alice Cooper, Sly and the Family Stone, Ike and Tina Turner, Metallica and Guns and Roses.

Over the years, Golding has lent items from his collection to major museums, including the Tate Liverpool in 2005 and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2007 for the traveling "Summer of Love" exhibition.

Golding, who personally knew many of the artists, said in an interview that he began assembling the collection for its "cultural aspect."

"It's urban art, contemporary art. Now it's considered pure art," he said.

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Associated Press writer Marcus Franklin contributed to this report.

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On the Net: www.bonhams.com/us

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