Is it a Square Painting or an Album Cover?
Is it a Square Painting or an Album Cover?
Admiring the simplicity of one of the oldest mediums on the 12x12" musical canvas
From prehistoric cave walls, to the Renaissance, to minimalist Modern Art, the medium of painting has been threaded throughout centuries and hasn’t stopped at the 12x12” record cover. Discovering an oil-painted album cover like Helena Deland’s Someone New evokes both a melancholic beauty and references the likes of Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Seeing a whole painted discography like UK band Palace’s invites you into their romantic, abstract visual world. And listening to The Strokes The New Abnormal makes you wonder just how much it cost to buy the rights to an excerpt of Basquiat’s Birds on Money.
The medium of painting is intricate yet soothing in its appearance on the square canvas. Once it’s painted, you don’t need much else in the way of design. From mainstream artists like Lorde and James Blake commissioning fine artists to create theirs, to multi-talented musicians like Bob Dylan and Emma Lee of MICHELLE painting their own, see just a few of the many painted record covers over the years.
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