Celebrated Split Enz painting used as album cover for sale after 45 years

The Raewyn Turner painting commissioned by Split Enz for the cover of their 1979 album Frenzy.

The painting commissioned as a wraparound cover of the legendary Kiwi band Split Enz’s 1979 album Frenzy is for sale for the first time in 45 years.

The oil-on-canvas shows the six band members, including brothers Neil and Tim Finn, posing in front of an old tin shed on a Hawke’s Bay farm. The painting, entitled A Thousand Acres, is estimated to sell for between $12,000 and $22,000 at an online auction at Webb’s this month.

Visual artist Raewyn Turner was commissioned by the band to paint the band members to cover both sides of their Frenzy album, which featured the song I See Red.

The cover of the 1979 Split Enz album Frenzy, based on an oil painting of the band by visual artist Raewyn Turner.

The painting has been part of a private collection in the South Island since the owner bought it in 1980 from the Denis Cohen Gallery in Auckland. Later that year, the work was loaned to the Auckland Art Gallery for an exhibition of women artists active in the 1970s. In 2004 it was loaned to Te Papa for the Out on the Street - the 1970s in New Zealand exhibition.

Turner had lost track of the painting and was reunited with the artwork at Webb’s gallery in Auckland earlier this month.

Visual artist Raewyn Turner with her oil painting A Thousand Acres, which was commissioned by Split Enz for the cover of their 1979 album Frenzy. Photo / supplied

The band members’ casual dress and rural setting was a deliberate departure from their earlier extravagant costumes and theatrical makeup. Tim Finn said in an interview with the now-defunct Australian music magazine Roadrunner the decision to abandon their previous flamboyance was intentional.

“We deliberately wanted something of us without the costumes. There’s no need to promote our image anymore — it’s our music that needs to be promoted.”

Split Enz abandoned its elaborate costumes and makeup in favour of a more casual look for the cover of its 1979 album Frenzy. Photo / supplied

Painting the album cover wasn’t Turner’s only connection with Split Enz. Between 1975 and 1983 she toured extensively in New Zealand and overseas as the band’s lighting and set designer. Her innovative lighting techniques, described by one reviewer as “painting with light”, became an integral part of the band’s identity.

The painting is part of Webb’s Select online art auction with bids closing at 8pm on February 24. Other art for sale includes works by Robin White, Ngaio Marsh, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekōwhai, Shane Cotton, Gretchen Albrecht, and Paul Dibble. The collection will be on view at Webb’s Wellington gallery until Saturday, and at Webb’s Auckland gallery in Mt Eden from February 17 to 24.

Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based business, features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.