In the 1950s, at the dawn of rock ’n’ roll and the apex of hipster jazz music, album covers were functional and intended as a pure marketing tool. To wit,
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Tag: Art
ART NEWS: RONNIE FORD EXHIBITION – TEXTURESCAPES
Internationally acclaimed Scottish artist Ronnie Ford will hold his second exhibition in Singapore, after his first debut in 2012.
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REEL TO REAL: MIKE LEIGH PROVIDES A SLICE OF AN ARTISTIC LIFE IN MR. TURNER
Written & directed by Mike Leigh.
Starring Timothy Spall.
Premiering at Cannes last year, Leigh’s biopic of famed English painter JMW Turner has already garnered a Best Actor award for Spall’s performance in the lead role and a special jury prize for the film’s cinematography for Dick Pope.
That just about sums it up really. Spall plays Turner as a brutish flawed man who had an unique ability to produce epic, awe-inspiring work which was extremely radical in its day. Pope manages to make virtually every outdoor shot a Turner painting and it is a wonder to behold! Check out the amazing of re-creation of The Fighting Temeraire (1839) below.
Leigh’s triumph with Mr. Turner is stringing together a loose collection of slice of life vignettes and filling them with all the relevant details to make that time and place come alive. The pacing is a little slow and nothing overtly dramatic happens but that’s the whole point of the exercise.
In the right hands, such evocative cinema is stirring and inspiring – Leigh and his heart-felt tribute deserves recognition as one of the best movies of 2014. Absolutely essential for art lovers everywhere.
Mr. Turner is in the cinemas now.
PoPINIONS: THE BEST COMIC BOOK ARTISTS
No words, a picture paints a thousand words…
JACK KIRBY (2001: A Space Odyssey)
PoP ART
A PoP feature where we examine the influence on ART on rock and pop music, in particular album covers.
Today we look at Pop-art, a movement that began in UK and the USA in the 50s. The dominant figure in this ‘genre’ is probably one of the most influential artists in contemporary art – Andy Warhol.
Released in 1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico may not have sold many units but it’s enduring significance cannot be over-emphasized. What was also unique about the album design was that early copies of the album invited the owner to “Peel slowly and see”, peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. Recently, there was a legal battle between the Andy Warhol Foundation of Visual Arts and the band over copyrights over the cover design.