Dec 16, 2021 - Sale 2592

Sale 2592 - Lot 184

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
DANIEL JOHNSTON (1961-2019)
"Salvation." Mixed media, including pen and marker on paper. 280x215 mm; 11x8 1/2 inches (sheet). Signed "Daniel Johnston" in lower right image.

Faded text at upper left reads: "THERE ARE MANY GREAT DAYS AND MANY GREAT DAYS TO CUM."

Johnston was a significant figure in outsider art and the alternative music scene, building a following by recording his music on lo-fi cassette tapes in his home and distributing them to people he met. His cult status was propelled when Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain wore a tee shirt featuring artwork from Johnston's 1983 cassette album Hi, How Are You at the 1992 MTV Music Awards. Cobain was a fan and repeatedly praised Johnston in interviews. Johnston's art and music drew upon his ongoing struggles with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, for which he spent periods in psychiatric institutions. Johnston was the subject of a 2005 documentary entitled The Devil and Daniel Johnston.