Oil paint and feather on LP cover and wood

60x45x5cm

PRIVATE COLLECTION

Jim Reeves was an American country and pop music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the ‘Nashville sound’.

On July 31, 1964, Reeves and his business partner and manager Dean Manuel left Arkansas, on route to Nashville in a single-engine aircraft, with Reeves at the controls. While flying over Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm resulting in a crash and their deaths. Musical tributes to Reeves were later composed by various artists around the world.

The Gentleman Jim LP (1963) was found lying in a puddle outside the artist’s studio, with a feather lying over one eye. A frame was constructed around his portrait like chewing gum, consisting of oil paint removed during the construction of other paintings.