Many of us miss album art. Now you can get the art without the album.
It started here in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but "The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were" exhibit is in L.A. at the Track 16 Gallery.
What is that, you may ask?
- Maybe you can't always judge a book by looking at its cover, but you can often judge an album by its cover. The cover art of a record or CD has always been an integral part of portraying the image and the essence of the recording artist. Documented by many books, record cover art has become an art form in itself, above and beyond the music inside the jacket. Many renowned artists have shown their love for this medium by creating covers for their favorite musicians.
Conceived by music archivist Michael Ochs and graphic designer Craig Butler, this project takes album cover art to a whole new level. One hundred established graphic and fine artists were approached to create the definitive album cover of their favorite recording artist. Each chose an iconic musical subject from the 1940s to the present and from the genres of rock, blues, jazz, country and soul music. The result is an original and highly creative collection of contemporary art.
While you're at Track 16, check out "Table Turners: Album Covers by Artist Who Hardly do Album Covers":
- October 11 through November 15, 2003
Table Turners: Album Covers by Artist Who Hardly do Album Covers
Curated by George Meredith from his own collection, Track 16 Gallery presents "Table Turners: Album Covers by Artist Who Hardly do Album Covers." Over 30 artists are represented in this exhibition including Andy Warhol, Robert Frank, Al Hirschfeld, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon, Robert Longo, Jean-Michel Folon, Salvador Dali, Mort Drucker, Howard Finster, Ed Ruscha, Danny Lyon, and Hilary Knight. After attending an exhibition in Soho that featured 2000 album covers, collector George Meredith had the idea of building a collection of album covers done by artists who generally did not make a living doing so. His collection includes an album cover by Salvador Dali for his good friend, Jackie Gleason, as well as a cover done by Andy Warhol, prior his ascent into art stardom, for jazz label Blue Note Records prototype for their newest 16 RPM recording. For Meredith, the purpose of this exhibition is to bring attention to the fact that the album cover, as an art form, was of great importance especially in the 1950s and 1960s.
Article comments
1 - Dew
Eric I think you woke up and found yourself in my mind... You have just saved me three hours at the computer.
2 - Dew
BTW, if you know where I can get frames for CD covers you could save me another 2 hours.
3 - Eric Olsen
We vibe often, my Dew. Unfortunatley, I don't know about frames for CD covers, but I bet some of our othe passonate afficionados do. Maybe Tom Johnson or Mark Saleski?
4 - Dew
The piece by Allan Aldrige and Gottfried Helnwein say the most, I believe. Marilyn Manson, the little girl and what I believe are unisex symbols at the top says so much. I would love to have that cover.
The Allan Aldridge piece jumped out at me as far more than cover art. The duplicity of this life we live is stated so plainly in his piece as if in life it should be that obvious.
Its a shame we live in times that commercialize everything to the point that those in search of true art (regardless of medium) tire of rummaging through rubble.
5 - Eric Olsen
at least this particular virtual tour seems to be worth the time!
6 - Natalie Davis
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
Album art is one of the reasons I refused to purchase a CD player until I finally broke down and got one in 1992. To this day, I prefer vinyl.
Awesome. Dang, to be stuck on the east coast.
7 - TDavid
Am I the only one that the Doors almost cover with the jeans and the finger freaked out?
Sort of reminded me of the bubblegum-boob of the Scorpion's old album cover (Lovedrive?)
8 - Taloran
I still have a copy of "The Album Cover Album" by Hipgnosis and Roger Dean, in perfect shape in the basement. Wonder if I could get anything off Ebay for it?
9 - Eric Olsen
yes, but ....
10 - Natalie Davis
Tal: Why would you want to rid yourself of something so wonderful? If you must sell it, sell it to me! At least you would be sure it had a good home.
TDavid: Yep, I totally freaked until the image finally loaded. But you gotta admit, that is sooooo Jim Morrison.
And yes, that was the Lovedrive lp with the notiorious bubblegum cover.
11 - Eric Olsen
which symbolized that women are sticky
12 - Natalie Davis
heh.
13 - jadester
i love the art on King Crimson's first record (In The Court Of The Crimson King?)
my dad has the very first version, the rare one. it's not worth *alot* but i persuaded him to keep it cos i actually like the tunes too.
14 - Eric Olsen
Jadester, I do too, and I love the think paper feel of the original. Now THAT is an album cover - nothing demure or retiring about it. Great record too, still my favorite by the group.
15 - Tom Johnson
Dew, there aren't any "frames" per se, but there is, or was, a wall-mounted storage device that would display your CDs, jewel-case and all, faced outwards. Pretty neat idea, but if you've got a collection as large as mine, I'd pretty much plaster entire walls with discs. Eric's collection would span whole city blocks. But modest collections would definitely benefit. I will do some searching tomrrow to see if I can turn up something for you.
16 - Al Barger
I had a big 3'x2' poster of this album cover on my wall for a couple of years while attending Ball State:
It was only later that I figured out that this (and my Punky Brewster doll) caused some to question my sexual proclivities.
Well, and then there was the first roommate in the dorm who reacted very badly to my insistence on hanging the Controversy poster of Prince in the shower with the crucifix behind him in our window. Ah, here we go:
I can't imagine why. I just liked the albums a lot. Really.
17 - Al Barger
So this MT programming thingy won't let me display pictures in the comments. Fine. Find them here:
Lovesexy
and
the Controversy poster
18 - Mark Saleski
i'd have to agree with Tom that if you have a collection that numbers any more than, say, 500...you're talkin' a lot 'o space.
a home project (that's still on my "to get to" list) is to create a small display for album covers. it's pretty easy if you do it like they used to do back in the vinyl-only days...just cut a couple of 1x4 to whatever length you need...then cut a dado on one edge. you mount them on the wall parallel. the idea for the dado is that it gives you room to slip the album jackup up behind this 'lip' you've created. sorry if this description isn't the greatest...old farts who used to cruise record stores should know what i'm yakkin' about.