Drawings created by John Lennon for what some believe to be the world’s first rock music video have gone on public display at a Liverpool museum.
The pop art-style images, which Lennon worked on with American artist and filmmaker Stephen Verona, were used in a promotional film for the Beatles’ 1960s hit "I Feel Fine". Ten of the drawings are now being exhibited at the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street, giving fans a rare chance to see part of the collection together.
The original set included 240 drawings, each linked to words and phrases from the song. The full collection was sold by Christie’s at auction in 2000 for more than $58,000 before later being separated.
The ten artworks now on display were recently acquired by collector Joseph O’Donnell, 29, from Tynemouth, after he spotted them at an auction in London. O’Donnell said the drawings had not been heavily promoted at the sale, giving him the opportunity to bid.
“I’m a big Beatles fan and I spotted these at an auction in London, where they weren’t really made a big deal of”, he said. “I thought I would have a go at bidding on them, although I thought it might go a bit crazy and I managed to get them at a reasonable price”.
He added that each piece features a different word from the song, allowing him to piece the drawings together to form a complete sentence.
Lennon collaborated with Verona after a chance meeting in a London nightclub. Verona, who died in 2019, later recalled that the pair worked on the drawings at the kitchen table of his Manhattan apartment, colouring the images with felt-tip markers.
O’Donnell, who eventually plans to sell the artworks, said he wanted to loan them to the museum first so that Beatles fans could see them together in Liverpool, the band’s home city.
“I think interest in the Beatles will never go away”, he said. “Someone has to be the best, it’s as simple as that. There has to be a greatest band in the world and it’s the Beatles”.
The drawings on display include pieces featuring the words “and” and “I”, as well as phrases from the song. They were unveiled at the museum on Thursday and are expected to remain on display for several months. — dpa
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