For the OZ Obscenity Fund

The trial of the editors of the British Underground paper OZ, Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis in 1971 became a cause celèbre. They faced prosecution on charges of conspiracy to corrupt public morality following the publication of Issue 28 in May 1970. Known as the 'Schoolkids OZ', Issue 28 had been guest-edited by a group of secondary school students, and famously featured an article with the head of Rupert the Bear pasted onto an X-rated cartoon by Robert Crumb. The trial became a test case for civil liberties and freedom of speech, and the editors' cause was taken up by a host of celebrities, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who composed and produced the single God Save Us, released on Apple by the Elastic Oz Band in July 1971, to gain publicity and raise money for the trial. David Hockney contributed the present, rare offset lithograph, of which to our knowledge only two impressions have been offered at auction in the last thirty years.