An original hand-painted animation frame from the official music video for “Shadrach” by the Beastie Boys — formally titled the “Abstract Impressionist Version”, produced by Klasky Csupo in 1989 — one of approximately 850[x=#8211/]900 individually hand-painted frames created by a team of 7[x=#8211/]8 artists to produce the video’s distinctive abstract impressionist animation. The frame depicts MCA (Adam Yauch) performing and is screen-matched to the official animated music video at the 2:40 timestamp and to the original live source performance footage at the 2:25 timestamp. Frame number 9241 is inscribed in the lower right corner. The painting bears an unidentified artist’s signature in the lower left.
Video Documentation
Historical Context
The Beastie Boys — MCA (Adam Yauch), Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz), and Mike D (Michael Diamond) — released Paul’s Boutique in 1989, a record widely regarded as one of the most ambitious and influential albums in hip-hop history. Though initially a commercial disappointment, Paul’s Boutique has since been recognized as a landmark of the form — and because of its poor initial sales, the band performed very few live shows in its support, making documented performances from the era exceptionally rare.
“Shadrach,” a single from the album, was accompanied by a music video directed by Yauch under his filmmaking pseudonym Nathaniel Hörnblowér — the first significant expression of his identity as a visual artist and filmmaker. The video was conceived by Yauch, inspired by the impasto painting style of LeRoy Neiman — bold, saturated primary colors applied with a palette knife to produce heavy textural surfaces. To realize this vision, Yauch staged a performance of “Shadrach” before a live audience at the Reseda Country Club in Reseda, California — a legendary 1,000-person-capacity San Fernando Valley venue that hosted U2’s first Los Angeles concert (1981), Mick Jagger video shoots, and numerous MTV events before its closure in the late 1990s. The shoot, organized on a weekday afternoon with extras recruited by a local radio DJ, featured an engineered mosh pit pushed against the stage by large security personnel. Between takes of “Shadrach,” the band performed other Paul’s Boutique tracks — including “Shake Your Rump” and “Hey Ladies” — for the assembled crowd.
The performance was filmed using 16 lipstick cameras and black-and-white film stock, then transferred to three-quarter-inch video cassette. The resulting footage — described by art director Audri Phillips as captured by cameras resembling “very bad bank security cameras,” producing largely blurry and out-of-focus imagery — was handed to a team of painters assembled under Phillips’ direction at Klasky Csupo, the Los Angeles animation studio founded by Gábor Csupó and Arlene Klasky and best known for producing the first three seasons of The Simpsons and the long-running Nickelodeon series Rugrats.
Animation director Chris Casady oversaw the technical production: every fourth frame of the source footage was printed as a photograph, registered on animation pegs, and used as a guide for the painters, who applied acrylic paint to sheets of thick archival printmaking paper — chosen specifically over standard animation acetate to allow the paint to absorb into the surface and produce a genuine fine-art quality. A background wash was applied first and dried flat; painters then traced a light pencil guide from the registered photo beneath a lightbox before completing each frame in acrylic. The completed frames were photographed on a down-shooter camera at 4 frames per painting, yielding an approximately 850[x=#8211/]900-frame final sequence. Yauch was directly involved in the color grading process, famously intervening during the film-to-video transfer to prevent over-saturation — insisting the finished frames retain the quality of paintings rather than cartoons.
The production resulted in two related versions: the “Abstract Impressionist Version” (the fully painted animation) and the “Mosh Version” — a separate live clip using the same Reseda Country Club source footage in its raw, unpainted form, both included in the Beastie Boys’ Criterion Collection DVD release alongside additional documentation of the production.
The “Shadrach” video was selected for inclusion in the 22nd International Tournée of Animation and is featured in the Beastie Boys’ Criterion Collection DVD release. Rolling Stone ranked it #81 on their list of the 150 Greatest Hip-Hop Videos of All Time, describing it as a clip that “distills the kitchen-sink ambitions of the Beastie Boys’ second album.”
Screen-Match
This frame is screen-matched to MCA performing in the official “Shadrach” animated music video at the 2:40 timestamp and independently matched to the corresponding moment in the original live source footage at the 2:25 timestamp — the specific blurry security camera image from which this painting was directly derived. Frame number 9241, inscribed lower right, identifies this painting’s precise position in the animation sequence. At 4 frames per painting across approximately 850[x=#8211/]900 total frames, each artwork represents a singular, unrepeated moment — this frame is one of a kind. Side-by-side comparative imagery against both the animated video and the live source footage is included in the photo documentation accompanying this listing.
Two dedicated screen-match graphics are included in the photographic documentation accompanying this listing: one matched to the official music video and one to Reseda Country Club live footage.
Specifications
· Medium: Acrylic paint on thick archival printmaking paper
· Palette: Red, blue, gold, and black
· Subject: MCA (Adam Yauch) performing with microphone, baseball cap, and blue shirt against abstract impressionist background
· Production markings: Animation registration peg holes cut along the bottom edge
· Frame number: 9241, inscribed lower right
· Signature: Unidentified artist’s signature lower left
Condition
The painting is in excellent condition consistent with careful storage. Paint surface retains full vibrancy. Reverse exhibits acrylic wash bleed-through at the edges — an inherent characteristic of the original production technique in which background washes were applied first and dried flat, not damage.
Provenance
Acquired from a former Capitol Records employee via eBay as part of a lot of five original “Shadrach” animation frames. Subsequently acquired from that seller.
Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance
This lot will be accompanied by a Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance — a document printed on official Nostalgia Bandit letterhead, signed by Nostalgia Bandit’s principal, and affixed with the official Nostalgia Bandit embossed seal. The Letter of Provenance reproduces the complete final auction description for this lot in full, memorializing all provenance documentation, attribution, supporting evidence, and condition details as presented herein. It is designed to travel with the lot through all future ownership transfers as a permanent, platform-independent physical record of the item’s documented history.
Shipping & Measurements
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» Item: 14.75 x 11″
