For the Record: Artists on Vinyl is open!

As I posted previously, Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is exhibiting another vinyl record show after the great success of Warhol on Vinyl during the summer of 2014.

For this exhibition, more than 130 vinyl record covers are being displayed from a variety of distinguished visual artists, from Josef Albers to Christopher Wool. In addition to specific cases housing single artist collections (Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol), there is a section of the exhibition where individual record covers are paired with other works by the same artists from Cranbrook’s permanent collection.

After spending the last 11 years collecting these records, it has been my great pleasure to see them available to the public to appreciate this under recognized art form. Below are photos from the show, which will be on display until at least April of 2020.

For the Record – Artists on Vinyl

As many of you have come to realize, I have been completely derelict in my duties in updating this blog. You all continue to make this a heavily trafficked blog despite my absence. I hope that means some of you find some value in what I’ve been able to document over these last 7 years or so. I actually do have new posts I would like to share, and I hope to have them up before this summer is over.

Today I reach out to you to announce another Record Cover Art exhibition based on my collection of vinyl records featuring covers from prominent visual artists from the last half of the 20th century to today. It will be appearing at the Cranbrook Art Museum  from July  13, 2019 to April 19, 2020. It is called For the Record: Artists on Vinyl.

To those of you who are strict Andy Warhol fans, yes, this will feature his work I previously donated to Cranbrook’s permanent collection (and maybe some you haven’t seen before?). But this time, the exhibition will also feature works from as many as 50 other artists who have also used the medium of the vinyl record cover to reach wider audiences than they could have ever seen in any other format.

I invite all of you to visit my other record cover blogs to see what else I have been documenting since going dormant here. They are:

ArtRecordCovers.com

BanksyCovers.com

ShepardFaireyCovers.com

I hope that between all these sites, you find images and (eventually) valuable information to help you recognize and appreciate this increasingly valuable art form. In the days to come, I’d like to tell you some stories about: My small role in securing the two most rare Warhol covers ever (just for safekeeping for the deserving collector who ultimately got them), and the process of going out on a limb to authenticate a Warhol cover that even the person that wrote the book wouldn’t vouch for, and how Occam’s Razor won out that time.

As always, thanks again to all of you who stop by this humble site. It gives me great joy that nearly 60,000 visitors from more than 100 countries have visited over these last many years. I would love to hear any thoughts or stories you might have.

Cheers!

Frank

Everything must go!!

I just wanted to thank all of you for visiting this blog over the last 5 years. You have made every bit of effort worthwhile. As many of you know, my collection of “official” covers and a select few of the “bootlegs and ripoffs” was donated to the Cranbrook Art Museum back in 2015. The more than 100 other items listed on this site were not accessioned, and are being returned to me. Without the main portion of the collection in my possession, having the other pieces does not excite me.

Many of these took years to find, and some that can be found now are being offered for some pretty high prices. So, before I offer these on eBay, if any of you loyal readers have an interest in any of the pieces on this blog that are not in the Marechal book, please contact me with an offer or a conversation.

Thanks again,

Frank

P.S. Although this blog may not see much in the way of new posts going forward, I will be announcing 2 new record cover blogs in addition to the recently added BanksyCovers.com.

New Blog-New Show

Well, it has obviously been a long time since my last post. Although I no longer own any Warhol covers, having donated them to the Cranbrook Art Museum, does that mean that I have given up the quest to find interesting artists’ record covers? Not by a long shot. I’ve shifted focus to other artists who have had their work incorporated into record cover art, and I’ve launched a new blog to announce my next project, BanksyCovers.com. And if that wasn’t enough to announce in one post, a selection from my collection will be featured in a solo exhibition at the prestigious David Klein Gallery starting February 4th. To my knowledge, this is the first commercial exhibition of Banksy’s record cover art ever mounted.

The new blog is just getting started, so please be patient. I will be adding almost every cover Banksy is associated with, I still have yet to secure a couple of the most rare examples. I will also try to include additional background information whenever I can.

Thank you everyone from every corner of the planet for your more than 43,400 visits. For those who want to stay informed of an incredible amount of Warhol cover knowledge and photos, please follow Guy Minnebach’s Andy Earhole blog at WarholCoverArt.com, and Richard Forrest’s RecordArt bog at RecordArt.wordpress.com. And if you are interested in some of the other Warhol works that have been largely overlooked (like book covers and magazines), please check out Niklas Lindberg’s blog RATFAB at ratfab.wordpress.com. Cheers!

 

 

Warhol on Vinyl (travels to Florida)

I had waited until there was an official announcement to post this, but here it is, and this is going to be so much cooler than I ever imagined.

Here is the official description of two concurrent shows at the Boca Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida next year:

January 25 – April 30, 2016

Warhol on Vinyl: The Record Covers, 1949-1987

Throughout Warhol’s long career he produced 60 unique album cover designs for an extremely diverse range of music ranging from Tchaikovsky and Gershwin, Count Basie and Artie Shaw, to the Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground. This exhibition organized by the Cranbrook Art Museum includes over 100 album covers, wallpaper, video and sound.
January 25 – April 30, 2016

Warhol Prints from the Collection of Marc Bell

The complete silkscreen suites from the collection of Marc Bell will accompany the Warhol on Vinyl exhibition. It will include the iconic soup cans, images of Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and Mao as well as Warhol’s flowers, dollar signs, and camouflage.

I am so excited at this unexpected pairing. I hope this gives thousands of people who weren’t able to make it to Michigan last year a chance to see this unique collection of Warhol’s treasures. I will definitely go to see the show and see if I am allowed to document the experience with photos to share.

I hope that the exposure this show brings will inspire other museums to continue this exhibitions travels. If I hear of anything new, I will post the news here first.

Some almost final thoughts…

Well, I’ve had quite a bit of time to reminisce about this journey this weekend. As income tax day approaches, I’ve had to look back at my purchases over the years and put numbers to acquisitions. So many memories coming flooding back. Covers I worked for years to find, scouring the globe to locate. What an intense time, full of frustration and triumph. Cranbrook Art Museum accessioned the first 133 of my covers nearly a year ago and I had to go over each one to account for the donated value. 

For some, the value is so small, the shipping cost more than the record. For others, I can’t believe I actually paid that much for a small piece of paper and vinyl. 

I will still post from time to time, as the Warhol on Vinyl show will be traveling next year, first to the Boca Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida next Winter. But, in the mean time, those of you looking for more insight about Andy Warhol and his work relating to record covers should bookmark the following page:

https://andyearhole.wordpress.com

This new blog is the work of my friend, and perhaps the most knowledgeable expert on Andy Warhol’s graphic design work, Guy Minnebach. Guy lent some of his treasures to the Warhol on Vinyl show, and has been an invaluable resource throughout this journey of mine. Whenever a question presented itself, Guy was there with the answer already in hand, and was generous enough to share his unlimited knowledge with us fellow seekers. Please check out his blog for the best images and information out there. 

Thank you all for your time and passion. I’ve enjoyed your questions and comments. Please keep them coming.

Cheers,

Frank

The Mystery of Do-Re-Mi

Just when I thought I wouldn’t find any already existing covers to report, here one pops up.

This is called The Mystery of Do-Re-Mi, featuring Christopher Gabbitas on vocals and David Miller on lute. This appears to be a recording from the UK from 2007.

Warhol is credited and the work cited as seen below. Despite this fact, no evidence exists of the work having received permission for its use.

Good News and Bad News

It has been some time since I provided any updates, but I do have some announcements to make. On the positive side, attendance at Warhol on Vinyl has been excellent. All hours of every day the show is open finds people exploring the show. It has been a blast to provide additional tidbits of information to visitors when I get a chance.

The big news was that this past Saturday, Eric Shiner, who is the director at the Warhol Museum, gave a lecture at the Cranbrook Art Museum. He was so gracious, knowledgeable, and positive, it was infectious. Later, I was invited to a private dinner at a local collector’s house to honor Eric. A great time was had by all.

Now the bad news. It appears that Paul Maréchal’s revised catalogue raisonne will not be available until after the show closes in March. We had hoped to do a book signing and officially launch the book at the show. We also want to do a collectors forum that would have featured Paul as well as others. Hopefully, that can still be salvaged.

Anyway, thanks to all that have made it to the show. Five months still remain to see it if you haven’t already, but time has a way of going by so fast.

Lew White – Melodic Magic

I have tried to hesitate using the term “holy grail”, but the story behind this cover is remarkable. I was unaware of this cover until late last year, when Guy Minnebach alerted the Warhol Cover Collectors’ Club of its existence. At the time, there were no more than three of these covers known to exist.

Almost unbelievable to me, there was not a single image of this cover on the entire internet. I spent months trying to find a copy to no avail. Knowing how important it would be to include a Warhol cover that had never been seen before, outside a few of us who had passed some photos around, I asked Guy Minnebach if he would consider loaning his rate gems for the show.

As befits a gentleman and a scholar, and one of the kindest people I’ve had the pleasure to make an acquaintance with during this journey, Guy was willing to part with his treasures for a really long time, from June until next March.

As the exhibition hopes to travel, we cannot expect our generous donors to go years without their precious covers. So I have still tried to find copies of the three covers I was unable to collect before the show opened.

Here is the second rarest Warhol cover that exists (unless more come to market).

Warhol on Vinyl – Family Day

Two days after the members opening, Cranbrook had a family day sponsored by PNC Bank. There was a 6 arm t-shirt press and Michigan premier Velvet Underground ukulele band, Thumbs Up!