Oasis Fever Hits Sotheby's: 'Liam + Noel' Portrait Set to Fetch $2 Million USD
Ahead of their reunion tour, the house reflects on Elizabeth Peyton’s 1996 piece, which painted the brothers in a new light.
Summary
- Elizabeth Peyton’s Liam + Noel (Gallagher) (1996) is heading to Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in London on June 24
- Created in the apex of the band’s fame, the “prescient” portrait highlights the quiet tension that shaped the duo’s public relationship and their break-up in 2009.
- After a reunion last year, the piece draws art world excitement for the upcoming Live ‘25 tour, set to start in Cardiff on July 4.
With the Live ‘25 tour kicking off next month, it’s safe to say: Oasis Fever is back in full swing. Britpop nostalgia is back in the air and the Elizabeth Peyton double-portrait of the Gallagher brothers couldn’t have arrived at Sotheby’s in better timing. The 1996 painting is among the headlining works at the house’s contemporary art auction in London on June 24, expecting to fetch £1.5 – £2 million GBP ($2.03 – $2.71 million USD).
Created in the aftermath of their Knebworth Park shows, which made history as the UK’s largest live concert, Liam + Noel (Gallagher) was based on a photographer of the brothers taken by Stefan De Batselier just a year before. The painting belongs to a pivotal series within Peyton’s oeuvre surrounding the brothers, one of which sold for $4.1 million USD last year.
Here we see the two tracksuit-clad brothers in an tight embrace, yet beneath the matching mod cuts, full brows and rosy cheeks is the quiet tension of their professional-private sibling dynamic. “It is a press image,” Sotheby’s specialist Antonia Garnder told The Guardian. “They’ve got their arms around each other, but you can feel that sort of slight tension within it. It feels so prescient, knowing now how it all ended up”
Just as the indie duo soar into pop stardom, so too did Peyton whose soft and moody paintings solidified her title as one of the most defining American portraitists of the era. Known for her portraits of pop icons, Liam + Noel (Gallagher) embodies her ability to rescue pop faces from the oppressive pressure of the spotlight and instead, present them with a tender, raw radiance.
The painting will be on view ahead of the auction at Sotheby’s London galleries from June 18 through 24. For more information on the upcoming sale, head to the house’s website.
