Martin Sharp, 1942–2013

“It started with a beer,” said The New York Times. In 1967, the Australian artist Martin Sharp started talking in a London bar with the young Eric Clapton and scribbled down a poem he’d written. Within weeks, Clapton used it for Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and asked Sharp to design the cover of the band’s new album, Disraeli Gears. The resulting masterpiece, a swirl of Day-Glo colors, feathers, and flowers, “helped shape the imagery of rock music” for a generation.

Born a doctor’s son in Sydney, Sharp was studying art at East Sydney Technical College when he met the young rebels Richard Walsh and Richard Neville, who were founding an anti-establishment magazine called Oz. “Without his stunningly original artwork, Oz might never have achieved the fame it enjoyed in its early years,” said Walsh in The Australian. But Oz got him in hot water, too. After being sued (and acquitted) for obscenity, the team moved to London.

There the young artist embraced the high life, said The Daily Telegraph. Inspired by drugs, he produced the “Magic Theatre” issue of the London Oz in 1968, a “writhing, 48-page collage-fusion of images and text.” When the police took interest in Sharp’s extracurricular pursuits, he decided to return to Sydney.

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For the rest of his life, Sharp pursued his belief that “there should be no dividing line between art and life,” said the Sydney Morning Herald. He spent 10 years and almost went bankrupt making a film about the singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim. Only toward the end was he ­ap­pre­ciated in his native land. “He was okay about that,” said Neville.” Martin Sharp knew his worth. As did many others, from the moment we first met him.”