moderneden:

Sid Vicious: “VICIOUS”

Laura Buss

24 x 36 inches

• © 2012
• Oil on Board, Framed

Sid Vicious - 1957-1979

Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols.  One of the most mythic figures of the 1970s punk explosion, Sid Vicious became famous for his edgy, rebellious persona and his self-destructive tendencies.       

After the break-up of the Sex Pistols, Nancy Spungen, his girlfriend, took over as Vicious’s manager and got him a few gigs, but his performances were lackluster as he was strung out on drugs at the time. The two tried to get clean briefly, but they soon spent most of their time feeding their drug habit, which included heroin, barbiturates, and a synthetic form of morphine. Sometime during the early hours of October 12, 1979, the couple’s downward spiral reached a tragic end. Spungen was found dead on the bathroom floor in their room at the Chelsea Hotel. She had been stabbed with a knife she had given Vicious as a present. Vicious was later found in the hallway in a complete drug-induced fog. Vicious was charged with second-degree murder.

A few days later, was released on bail, using money put up by his record company. Despondent over Spungen’s death, he tried to commit suicide after leaving jail. After a fight in a New York City club, Vicious was locked up again. He spent seven weeks in the prison on Riker’s Island. On February 1, Vicious was released. He celebrated his new found freedom with a party at the home of actress Michelle Robinson. Sometime that evening, Vicious returned to using heroin. The next morning he was found dead of a drug overdose.

Laura Buss began studying art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, with a focus in photography. But she soon succumbed to the lure of the wider world, dropped out and traveled, and worked as a painter of signs and portraits. Her craft took her into varied directions, including an ongoing career in tattooing, to return to a heavy focus on oil painting and figurative work. She is based in San Francisco.