52 banners to commemorate the Grateful Dead's 25th anniversary in 1989.

Kant had a commission for Sawka: Design 52 banners for the Grateful Dead’s 25th anniversary tour in 1989. The individual banners eventually morphed into a 10-story-high sequence of radiant, multicolored images of landscapes, the sun and the heavens.

Kant died in 2008, and now eight of those banners, plus other artworks by Sawka, Lucian Freud, Jerry Garcia and Richard Stein will be sold in a Dec. 9 online auction of the Kants’ collection.

“Many people aren’t aware that both Garcia and Kant had a lifelong interest in the fine arts,” said Hanna Sawka, daughter of Jan, who died in 2012. “Kant loved the opera, collected Lucian Freud and acquired a Francis Bacon triptych before it was hot.”

Online bidding for the Kant collection started at 7 a.m. Wednesday 11/22, and the auction closes at 10 a.m. Dec. 9. It’s being run by Stremmel Auctions, www.stremmelauctions.com

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-grateful-dead-banners...