Stanley Donwood

Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood walk Christie's through the paintings they made around Kid A and Amnesiac. Donwood was the one who could actually paint, Yorke says, and the first day he met Donwood, at art college, Yorke decided he would either hate him or work with him forever. When Radiohead signed and Yorke found dealing with graphic designers too much like a manufacturing business, he rang Donwood to ask if he wanted a go at a record cover. They bought a computer and made the sleeve for The Bends.

After the OK Computer tour Yorke was ragged and could do nothing creative, and his partner Rachel told him to go back to art for a while. The paintings that followed include one about the Balkans, one of two towers made before 9/11, and others with pyramids, a shadow self and scarecrows. Some are built up in decorators' filler, with soot and gravel thrown at it. Then Yorke and Donwood scanned, sampled and crumpled what they had made into the sleeves.