Wish You Were Here (1975)
SKU:
PF_Wis
£4,000.00
£4,000.00
per item
LIMITED EDITION OF 295
Signed and numbered in pencil by Storm Thorgerson
Design and Photography by Hipgnosis: Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and George Hardie
Silkscreen in 21 colours on Somerset UK white textured 300gsm
Printed by Gresham Studios, Cambridgeshire
Image size: 17.5" x 23"
Paper size: 25.5" x 33"
Signed and numbered in pencil by Storm Thorgerson
Design and Photography by Hipgnosis: Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and George Hardie
Silkscreen in 21 colours on Somerset UK white textured 300gsm
Printed by Gresham Studios, Cambridgeshire
Image size: 17.5" x 23"
Paper size: 25.5" x 33"
About
“One of my favourite albums” says David Gilmour. The haunting central theme of Shine on you Crazy Diamond is never far out of consciousness. Welcome To The Machine introduces Waters’s fascination with pessimistic sci-fi views of the future. Wish You Were Here itself is a sad and wistful indictment of insecurity. Storm Thorgerson recalls that one theme, indeed one word, prevailed during the recording of the album at Abbey Road – ‘absence’. Nothing more poignantly, or powerfully illustrated this than the unexpected arrival of Syd Barrett at the studio during the vocal takes for Shine On You Crazy Diamond, having been absent for seven years.
Says Storm: “the handshake from the burning man is as empty or absent a gesture as you can get. The man is really on fire. He wore an asbestos suit under the cloth suit, which extends over the head, where a wig was attached. The first attempts at setting him alight were in the wrong wind direction. The flames were blown back and ignited his moustache for an instant. A close shave, one might say.....the diver in the lake makes no splash, so is he there really? Or is he absent?. The man in the desert is faceless, no features, no scruples or rather absent morality . . . and so on and so forth. The whole album design was then hidden from public view by an opaque black shrink-wrap. In effect, this cover too was absent.
"I'm very interested in intentional ambiguity. You know what it is, but not why it is. You might know what it is, but not how it is. There was one particular cover that was very consciously about Magritte. It was a sort of homage. It was Wish You Were Here for Pink Floyd, and we did four pictures, including a man on fire, a man diving into a lake, a veil floating in the air in Norfolk, and the man in a desert who had no features. The one that was on the back cover, which was the man in the desert, is very obviously, and was supposed to be, a Magritte thing. So I think there is a certain Magritte feeling to the cover. It does confound you a bit, because you look at it and think, well, is this real?
Says Storm: “the handshake from the burning man is as empty or absent a gesture as you can get. The man is really on fire. He wore an asbestos suit under the cloth suit, which extends over the head, where a wig was attached. The first attempts at setting him alight were in the wrong wind direction. The flames were blown back and ignited his moustache for an instant. A close shave, one might say.....the diver in the lake makes no splash, so is he there really? Or is he absent?. The man in the desert is faceless, no features, no scruples or rather absent morality . . . and so on and so forth. The whole album design was then hidden from public view by an opaque black shrink-wrap. In effect, this cover too was absent.
"I'm very interested in intentional ambiguity. You know what it is, but not why it is. You might know what it is, but not how it is. There was one particular cover that was very consciously about Magritte. It was a sort of homage. It was Wish You Were Here for Pink Floyd, and we did four pictures, including a man on fire, a man diving into a lake, a veil floating in the air in Norfolk, and the man in a desert who had no features. The one that was on the back cover, which was the man in the desert, is very obviously, and was supposed to be, a Magritte thing. So I think there is a certain Magritte feeling to the cover. It does confound you a bit, because you look at it and think, well, is this real?
Authenticity
It can be difficult to make a judgement about an artwork without seeing it in the flesh. We do our best to give you the information you need, visual and otherwise, to make your choices.
We can assure you that the artwork we publish, print or market is of the highest quality and that the artworks we market on behalf of other publishers have been selected by us to be of comparable quality to our own.
Our published artwork is printed on the finest paper stock by renowned and experience printers using traditional or modern techniques. They will either be signed by the artist or embossed with authentication.
We can assure you that the artwork we publish, print or market is of the highest quality and that the artworks we market on behalf of other publishers have been selected by us to be of comparable quality to our own.
Our published artwork is printed on the finest paper stock by renowned and experience printers using traditional or modern techniques. They will either be signed by the artist or embossed with authentication.
