Martin Sharp
| Martin Ritchie Sharp | |
|---|---|
| Born |
21 January 1942 Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 1 December 2013 (age 71) |
| Nationality | Australian |
Martin Ritchie Sharp (21 January 1942 – 1 December 2013) was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker.
Sharp made contributions to Australian and international culture from the early 1960s, and was called Australia's foremost pop artist. His psychedelic posters of Bob Dylan, Donovan and others, rank as classics of the genre, and his covers, cartoons and illustrations were a central feature of Oz magazine, both in Australia and in London. Martin co-wrote one of Cream's best known songs, "Tales of Brave Ulysses", created the cover art for Cream's Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire albums, and in the 1970s became a champion of singer Tiny Tim, and of Sydney's embattled Luna Park.
Sharp was born in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales in 1942, and educated at Cranbrook private school, where one of his teachers was the artist Justin O'Brien. In 1960, Sharp enrolled at the National Art School at East Sydney, where he contributed to the short-lived student magazine The Arty Wild Oat, along with fellow artists Garry Shead and John Firth Smith. He also submitted cartoons to The Bulletin. In 1961, he enrolled for two terms in architecture at Sydney University before returning to the National Art School.
In 1962 Sharp met Richard Neville, editor of the University of NSW student magazine Tharunka, and Richard Walsh, editor of its Sydney University counterpart Honi Soit. Both wanted to publish their own "magazine of dissent" and they asked Sharp and Shead to become contributors. The magazine was dubbed OZ. From 1963 though to February 1966 when he left Australia for London, Sharp was its art director and a major contributor.
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