A 1966 painting made by all four icons of the legendary group The Beatles heads to a Christie's auction in New York this upcoming February 1. The artwork, dubbed "Images of a Woman," is estimated to sell between $400,000 to $600,000 in the auction house's "The Exceptional Sale."
According to Christie's lot essay for the piece, it was reportedly made in the Fab Four's room in the Tokyo Hilton hotel during a three-day long five-show performance at the famous Nippon Budokan venue in Japan. The memorabilia's exceptional value is even more exemplified by the fact that it was signed by all four members.
This photo taken on June 30, 1966 shows British band The Beatles, (L to R) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon, performing during their concert at the Budokan in Tokyo.
Behind the Creation of the 'Images of a Woman' Painting
During the Japan leg of the Beatle's international tour, the auction house said that the band had spent a total of 100 hours, and away from performing in the sold-out arenas, the four icons rarely stepped outside of their rooms.
This was mostly due to the local authorities being concerned for the band's safety, following reports of threats that had been floating around at the time.
In a report by Japan Today, it was explained that the threats mostly came from Japanese nationalists who were upset that a foreign rock band was playing in what they considered a sacred arena reserved for martial arts.
According to Christie's, an individual who was visiting the band had brought them a set of art supplies during this period. Eventually, the Fab Four found themselves sitting around a table with a Japanese art paper on top of it.
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon then picked a corner to paint in, with each of them artistically conjuring something unique in their chosen spaces. The auction house even mused the fact that recordings that would later become singles for their album "Revolver" were playing in the background as they painted.
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What The Beatles Painted That Day
Accompanying the band at the time was photographer Robert Whitaker, who was reportedly invited by The Beatles' band manager, Brian Epstein. "I never saw them calmer or more contented than at this time," the photographer said, as cited by the auction house in their lot report.
When it comes to their art background, the Fab Four proved to be no slouch. In Lennon's case, he was an attendee of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and McCartney himself was also a student of the medium in his own right.
Both Harrison and Starr also displayed an affinity for artistic expression, because as Christie's reported, the two drew "often and with plenty of talent. The end product was an exhibition of four unique approaches in terms of shapes, colors, and pigments used, exhibited within each of the member's corners in the piece.
For Harrison's side, he used "aggressive" brush strokes with an overall monotone palette, while Starr contrasted it with his area being more petite and a lot more playful. The members also varied in their chosen materials as Lennon and McCartney mainly used acrylic, while Harrison and Starr preferred to use water-based paints.
The painting itself initially didn't have a name, that is until the late 1980s when a Japanese newspaper reporter interpreted McCartney's portion to be depicting "female genitals" and eventually the piece was called "Images of a Woman."
