Hello again, good old Pete in Acton (West London) and vaunted friend of the blog wrote in to tell me that the Ray Lowry artwork for London Calling that was up for auction this week did indeed fetch more than the anticipated price (see prior post). The staggering bid of £72,000 (about $116,000 US) secured the artwork this week.

Lowry was of course a fascinating cartoonist and I recommend you visit his gallery via the link above, It seems that all items that were on the gallery have been sold so if anyone knows if any prints are for sale elsewhere please let me know. Ray passed away last year (Oct 14th) and would

Image courtesy Ray Lowry Foundation

have been pleased I’m sure at the continued fascination with his work with The Clash. Sometimes a person leaves behind nothing but the best in terms of compliments, memories and goodwill and every account of Ray Lowry depicts him as just such a chap.

If you’re a more casual Clash fan and not aware of Ray but purchased the original vinyl, the sketches you saw within London Calling were his work. Ray was a writer and illustrator whose work spanned a 40 year spell. The information below is directly from the Ray Lowry Foundation:

In 2009 The Ray Lowry Foundation was set up by Ray’s son, Sam, and Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor of the See Gallery in Rossendale, Lancashire. The aim of the Foundation is to create an organisation that ensures Ray’s work will continue to be remembered and appreciated, and to create a fund in Ray’s name that will provide financial assistance with mentorship to individuals and art projects. This will include providing a scholarship to a student studying a course in art to a higher degree level and to make financial awards linked to individual art-based projects

One of these days I’ll get to work on an extended ‘Clash Family Tree’ for this site – Ray Lowry would be a very artistic branch within.