Here are some pictures from the members only opening of the exhibition. Intermixed with these are screen captures from the videos that play in loops. They include Velvet Underground footage, the Ultra Violet cover shoot film, and the videos for The Cars and Curiosity Killed the Cat.
There are also close ups of the one of a kind Night Beat cover, generously lent by Paul Maréchal and the Melodic Magic and Giant Size $1.57 cover, generously lent by Guy Minnebach.
This was one of the coolest things about the promotion for the exhibition. Cranbrook Art Museum had never utilized a billboard before. For those who might be familiar with Detroit, these billboards were displayed on I-75 and I-94 throughout June and July.
Here are some photos snapped as the exhibition was still being installed.
Just to show that there will probably never be a definitive list of covers using Warhol’s work, along comes a brand new record with authorized Warhol images, and even a photo of him taking the iconic portrait photo of Debbie Harry.
I have posted the reissue before, but here is the original, just in time to be added to the Warhol on Vinyl show at Cranbrook.
This one is a bit controversial, but I’m including it in the blog (and in the Warhol on Vinyl show at Cranbrook). Paul Maréchal is not convinced this is a genuine Warhol cover, and I don’t believe he will add it to the revised catalog. But, noted expert Guy Minnebach and I both believe it to be Warhol’s work.
For me, it is a case of weighing which is the more likely scenario. Since everyone agrees that the Gershwin record is Warhol’s work, and now Maréchal agrees that the Tchaikovsky cover is real, is it possible that in the middle of two RCA Bluebird commissions with label numbers right in the same range (LBC-1045 and LBC-1061) that RCA Victor hired another illustrator using the blotted line technique instead of Warhol for LBC-1059? I believe in Occam’s Razor, which stated basically that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one.
Anyway, here is the Porgy and Bess cover. Please feel free to leave
Your comments below.
Regular readers of this blog will notice my extended absence from posting. The run up to the Warhol on Vinyl show at Cranbrook really took a lot out of me. I have photos from the show and its promotional activity, as well as new covers to show. I promise to play some catchup here in the next week or two.
But today is a very important day, and it would be a shame not to post. 86 years ago today, Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola. Warhol would become influential in virtually every expression of the arts before he died tragically in 1987. He was a commercial illustrator, painter, print maker, sculptor, film director, music producer, tv host and video producer, as well as being the mind and/or talent behind the record covers I’ve spent these last years documenting.
I have admired Warhol’s work since it was a child, and have collected his artwork since 1989. My library contains more than a full shelf of books on the man and his art. Was he a perfect artist or human being? No, many who passed in and our of his circle would say he had many flaws. But who doesn’t?
What we are left with more than a quarter century after his passing, is that Andy Warhol is as alive and influential now as ever. His quotes and his images are as vibrant and alive now as they were when first unveiled. He correctly predicted a time and a culture he never got a chance to live to see.
So tonight take fifteen minutes to think about what Andy Warhol left us, and how the world is a little more interesting because a young man from Pittsburgh decided to become Andy Warhol.
I’ll have more posts up shortly.
The exhibition is taking shape, and the promotion for this show is really impressive. Cranbrook Art Museum will be running a digital billboard on two of the most traveled interstates in Michigan. Here is the billboard design:
Additionally, the banner that will hang in front of the Museum will be this:
I’m also thrilled to announce that my friend and noted Warhol cover collector Guy Minnebach will be lending two important covers to fill holes in my collection. More exciting details about that to follow.
Okay, I know I said I was just about finished with this obsessive collection, but I’m still on the lookout for covers I didn’t know about. I found this VU bootleg from a seller in Japan. Right there on the back cover is Warhol’s Ambulance Disaster from 1963. I will enjoy it for a couple of days, and then it’s off to Cranbrook.
Well, we’re exactly two months from the members preview opening of Warhol on Vinyl – the Record Covers 1949-1987+ at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Right now the Graduate Degree Show is up and there was a fantastic preview last night to see what the future art superstars have up their sleeves at this point in their career.
They have started to promote the Warhol show, and I was greeted with this signage at the exit:
So now you get a face to go with my previously uncluttered (some might disagree with that) blog. I will continue to share details as they emerge, but start making those plans to come visit. It will actually be open from June 20, 2014 until March of 2015, so you have plenty of time.
Side note: some keen observers might notice the work of Richard Forrest on the cover collage. Thanks again, Richard!
Warhol Covers 