Dimebag Darrell was the guitar player in Pantera, and later, Damageplan, until he was assassinated onstage by an angery fan. The metal world was stunned by Dimebag’s unexpected death, but the much-loved, big-hearted guitarist’s legacy lives on. The latest testament to Darrell’s life after death is Six String Masterpieces: The Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute. The exhibit was curated by Curse Mackey, an event producer/promoter, and includes over 60 guitars, all hand-painted by some of art and music’s biggest names. After a run of dates on Ozzfest, the exhibit has landed in Los Angeles at the La Luz De Jesus gallery, and the guitars will soon be sold in a live auction on eBay, the proceeds of which will go to Little Kids Rock, an organization dedicated to bringing free musical instruments and music instruction to public school children.

Each piece of art is done on one of Dimebag’s signature Dean ML guitars, and participants include Metallica, Dave Grohl, Ted Nugent, Marilyn Manson and a who’s slew of music and art icons.

These guitars were painted by Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, Kelly Clarkson and Billy Gibbons respectively (click the thumbnail for the fullsize image):

And these were done by Ron English, Sas Christian, Mark Ryden and Alex Grey respectively.

For more info on the exhibit, check out its MySpace page, and make sure to bid on any of these one of kind items via the live auction. You can also check out a video about the exhibit here.

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