came up to the label’s office in flowing robes, no shoes, long hair and had his own concepts for the artwork for his new album. He was quite put off by the acrid business-like atmosphere up there so we went over to my place, smoked a joint and became friends.” Sid managed to translate Donovan’s concepts into some legendary and radically creative album covers, along with a Hollywood billboard which they painted together. Their collaboration lasted for years with Sid branching out to manage his musical career, documented in Donovan’s autobiography, The Hurdy Gurdy Man. Sid also gets a few pages in 2Stoned, Andrew Loog Oldham’s autobiographical
52 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2011
> Clockwise from top: paintings of Salvadore Dali; Marilyn Monroe; Woody Allen; Humphrey Bogart; Liza Minelli; Duke Ellington.
account of his life as manager of The Rolling Stones. Sid’s resurgence today comes after a few bad breaks both personally and professionally, but at the age of 85 he is once again approaching the pinnacle of the creative world thanks to the support of his childhood buddy, actor/producer Allan Rich (Serpico) and the legendary art marketer, Marilyn Goldberg, President of Museum Masters International who told me, “For many years my favorite song was La Vie on Rose by Edith Piaf which simply means ‘always seeing the glass half full and life thru rose colored glasses.’ I so enjoyed receiving a painting of this great singer from Sidney that I couldn’t stop thinking of countless ideas to develop an international campaign to promote his art to the world. ” Noted art dealer Michael Miller who has sold millions of dollars worth of Andy Warhols and operated some of the country’s largest art galleries, concurs. “These paintings, both individually and as a body of work, have
more gravitas than the silkscreens by Warhol, not only because of the power of paint itself over the use of inks, but because Maurer’s concern with iconic figures (Einstein is just as stunning and important a painting as Marilyn Monroe) has more breadth and feels more compelling than Andy’s primarily playful focus on celebrity. Marilyn and Allan, in my humble opinion, have a phenomenal artist on their hands.” Even today, Sid will wake up two or three times a night, come into the studio and work. “That’s my life. That’s what I do and this is what I intend to do until I die. It’s like having a mistress. You don’t own her, she owns you. I paint because it’s all inside of me. I have been like this all of my life. In New York, I had a record company and a publishing company. I made a lot of money, lost a lot of money. The stories go on forever. I made other people stars, played in that land and moved to Atlanta. That’s my creative life. It’s the journey I’m on and the journey is finishing this collection.” “Onward and upward,” he says. This is one story surely to be continued. Artworks © 2011Sidney Maurer