Illustrating the intertwined relationship between Post-War and Contemporary Art and Music
Continuing our journey into collaborations between artists and musicians, let's look at the XX century, where it all began. The confluence of two mediums gained a momentum with proliferation of vinyl record sleeves in 1960s, followed by pull-out liners for CD cases and small digital icons, most prominent today. Regardless of the format, the visual element has always retained the capacity to enhance our listening experience, adding additional immersive layer of artistic expression.
Below we present some of the preeminent examples by the greatest artists of the XX century.
1. Jackie Gleason x Salvador Dali
The first iconic collaboration that we would like to bring to your attention dates back to 1955, when famous actor and comedian, Jackie Gleason, released an album, 'Lonesome Echo', of chill mood music, as it would have been labeled today, after making a name for himself as a composer and an orchestra leader. Jackie asked his close friend, Surrealist Salvador Dali, to lend his hand to the album cover.
Dali beautifully described his artwork in the notes to the album as:
“The first effect is that of anguish, of space, and of solitude. Secondly, the fragility of the wings of a butterfly, projecting long shadows of late afternoon, reverberates in the landscape like an echo. The feminine element, distant and isolated, forms a perfect triangle with the musical instrument and its other echo, the shell.”
Salvador Dali has even put his signature on the cover, highlighting how important the work was for him. The artwork goes in perfect synthesis with the album, as its surrealist visual element compliments dreamy and moody sounds of the album.
2. The Velvet Underground x Nico x Andy Warhol
One of the most renowned album covers of its time came in March 1967, when rock group The Velvet Underground - a house band at Andy Warhol's New York studio, The Factory - recorded their debut album with German guest singer Nico. Andy Warhol produced the experimental rock album, as well as created its cover art in his signature Pop Art style. It featured a banana on a plain background with the artist's name below. The original artwork was interactive, as the yellow banana peel was a sticker, which, once pulled, revealed a light pink banana underneath. The production of this unique cover art had delayed the album release, because it was costly and required a special machine to manufacture. Nevertheless, the record label agreed to it, because a collaboration with such renowned artist, as Andy Warhol, added value and brought more publicity, it was reasoned.
3. The Rolling Stones x Andy Warhol
After his debut in album cover art in 1967, Andy Warhol created another iconic work for The Rolling Stones 1971 album 'Sticky Fingers'.
It contained a black and white photograph of a jeans' crotch by Billy Name and graphic design by Craig Brown, the entire concept overseen by Warhol. The cover of the original vinyl LP featured a working zipper and perforations around the belt buckle that opened to reveal a sub-cover image of white briefs. The vinyl depicted The Rolling Stones’ name and album title over the belt, and behind the zipper the underpants were rubber stamped in gold with Warhol’s name.
4. Faust x Bridget Riley
German rock band Faust commissioned op-art artist Bridget Riley to design the cover for their album 'The Faust Tapes' in 1973. Her signature geometric patterns in black and white created a captivating optical illusion of movement and depth, very fitting for the avant-garde album of Faust.
5. Patti Smith x Robert Mapplethorpe
Punk artist Patti Smith used the photo of her by the artist and friend, Robert Mapplethorpe, for Patti's debut album 'Horses', released in 1975. The photo was taken in Robert's New York apartment, using only Polaroid camera and natural light. She prohibited her record label from editing the image, although androgynous pose and black and white palette were unusual for promotional images of female singers at the time, and it worried the management. Eventually, they gave up in favor of Patti's artistic expression.
6. Raimon x Joan Miro
Spanish singer and songwriter Raimon, known for promoting Catalan culture and music during Franco's dictatorship, collaborated on his 'Quan L’Aigua Es Queixa' album cover with fellow Spanish artist and friend, Joan Miro, in 1979. Miro produced one of his signature primary color abstractions, incorporating in it stylized artist's name.
Raimon later created a song, named A Joan Miro, celebrating his close friend and collaborator.
7. Bobby "O" x Roy Lichtenstein
Bobby "O", a.k.a. Bobby Orlando, credited as one of the founding figures of dance music and Hi-NRG genre in America in the 1980s, released a catchy dance track 'I Cry For You' in 1983. He has asked a Pop Art legend, Roy Lichtenstein, to design the cover art for it. Roy created a black and white image of a crying woman in his signature style against a bright yellow backdrop.
8. Talking Heads x Robert Rauschenberg
A chance visit to Leo Castelli's New York gallery in the 1980s by Talking Heads' frontman, David Byrne, and his instant infatuation with abstract artist Robert Rauschenberg's work, has lead to the artist winning a Grammy for his limited-edition cover art of Talking Heads' LP 'Speaking in Tongues', which was released in 1983.
It consisted of a vinyl disc in a clear plastic packaging, which, once removed, presented a collage of images in three different colors, including a wrecked car, a highway billboard, and a suburban bedroom. Those could be spun to produce different effects. The images referenced a sculpture series, titled Revolver, that Rauschenberg created in 1967.
9. Rammelzee x K-Rob x Jean-Michel Basquiat
Graffiti legend Jean-Michel Basquiat loved music, to the point that he wanted to become a musician himself, but had to quit, because he wasn't good enough. Nevertheless, he had arranged and produced Rammelzee & K-Rob's hip-hop track Beat Bop, that was released in 1983, and designed the cover for it in his unique neo-expressionist manner, including text, abstract images and graffiti signs in black and white.
10. Malcolm McLaren x Keith Haring x Dondi
British music producer, Malcolm McLaren, best known as the manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls, released his solo album 'Duck Rock' in 1983. It was an innovative fusion of electronic dance music, hip-hop, Caribbean, South American and African sounds.
Prominent New York street artist of the 1980s, Keith Haring, lent his hand on the background of the cover, depicting his signature dancing figures and snakes in bold colors, while graffiti artist Dondi did equally colorful lettering.
11. David Bowie x Keith Haring
Keith Haring did not stop his collaboration with music on McLaren's album cover. In 1983 he created the artwork for David Bowie’s single 'Without You', that was included in musician's album 'Let's Dance', released the same year. The cover art prominently featured his iconic figures, hugging on a plain orange background.
12. The Offs x Jean-Michel Basquiat
For a fee of $500, Jean-Michel Basqiuat designed the San Francisco punk/ska band The Offs' album cover in 1984. The album was called 'The Offs First Record'. The cover art was once again black and white graffiti style drawing (see Basquiat's rendition of 'Duck Rock' from 1983).
Andy Warhol arranged for music critic Glenn O’Brien to write up the review of the album for Interview Magazine and credit Jean-Michel Basquiat for designing the cover art.
The artwork was featured in the exhibition Vinyl - Records and Covers by Artists, that toured the world in 2010s.
13. Sylvester x Keith Haring
Keith Haring strikes again! For the singer Sylvester's Billboard Dance Club Songs chart-topping single 'Someone Like You', released in 1986, Keith drew colorful dancing figures, that went along with the song's upbeat disco style.
14. Sonic Youth x Gerhard Richter
For Sonic Youth's 1988 album 'Daydream Nation', the rock group chose Gerhard Richter's 1983 painting Kerze - Candle in English, which also coincided with the name of one of the tracks on the album. In so doing, Sonic Youth introduced the famed German painter to an even greater audience around the world.
15. Sonic Youth x Richard Prince
The American rock group Sonic Youth, no stranger to tapping big-name artists for their album covers, took one of the images by Richard Prince from his Nurse Paintings series for another album. That body of work debuted just a year prior to the album release in 2004. It is debatable how much inspiration Sonic Youth drew from Prince's work, however, the album was fittingly called 'Sonic Nurse' - an amalgamation of the artist's series and the group's names. Additionally, one of the key tracks on the album is called Dude Ranch Nurse, which is also the title of one of the paintings in Richard Prince's Nurse Paintings series.
Hope you have discovered some formerly unknown instances from the dynamic partnership between artists and musicians. If you think we have missed any important covers from the XX century, please do not hesitate to let us know in the comments!
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