{"id":2777,"date":"2008-01-23T01:12:47","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T01:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2011-11-11T19:45:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T19:45:17","slug":"alex-steinweiss-creator-of-the-album-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2008\/01\/23\/alex-steinweiss-creator-of-the-album-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Steinweiss: creator of the album cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"steinweiss2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Contrasts in Hi-Fi by Bob Sharples. <\/em><\/p>\n

A Tribute to Alex Steinweiss<\/strong>
\n The Creator of the Album Cover<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert Berman Gallery<\/a> announces an exhibition of Alex Steinwiss. Original album covers, paintings, and collages by Steinweiss, and special tribute by selected artists. Co-curated by Kevin Reagan and Greg Escalante.<\/p>\n

In 1939, a 23 year-old graphic designer revolutionized the music industry. No longer would records come in plain brown wrappers. As Art Director at Columbia Records, Steinweiss created the \u2018album package.\u2019 His idea was to create a visual to complement the musical. It was an instant success, and spawned an entire new field of illustration and design: Album Cover Art. Steinweiss was the king of the genre; his covers are still regarded as icons.In his four decade career, Steinweiss created album covers for musical luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Igor Stravinsky and Benny Goodman.<\/p>\n

\"steinweiss1.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Miraculous Mandarin (circa 1977). <\/em><\/p>\n

The Steinweiss exhibition will feature 50 of his original cover designs, plus 50 original \u2018tribute\u2019 works, created specifically for this show. Artists that are honoring Steinweiss in the show include: Clive Barker, Bill Barminski, Ron English, Mick Haggerty, Raymond Pettibon, Shag, and Glenn Wexler. The featured artists have created album covers for a wide range of musicians, including Black Flag, Dixie Chicks, Goo Goo Dolls, Supertramp, and Rob Zombie.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteinweiss is 90 years old this year; this tribute is long over-due. The art community is excited to have a chance to pay homage to Alex\u2019s unprecedented contribution to album cover art,\u201d says Kevin Reagan, three time GRAMMY winning Art Director.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to discover this one man, this un-sung hero, who is responsible for inventing the album. Steinweiss should be a household name,\u201d says Greg Escalante, curator of Juxtapoz<\/em>, and co-founder of Copro-Nason Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to highlight \u2018the art of music\u2019 is exciting. You have the energy of two different genres, and their combination is explosive,\u201d says gallery owner Robert Berman. \u201cJust plain design didn\u2019t mean a damn thing,\u201d Steinweiss says. You had to know music. I had to find a way to bring out the beauty of the music and the story.\u201d (dwell<\/em>, 10\/07)<\/p>\n

Alex Steinweiss lives in Sarasota, Florida, where he continues to design and paint.<\/p>\n

A Tribute to Alex Steinweiss
\nGala Opening: January 19th
\nShow runs through February 12th, 2008<\/p>\n

Robert Berman Gallery<\/a>
\nBergamot Station Arts Center
\n2525 Michigan Avenue, C2
\nSanta Monica, CA 90404<\/p>\n

\u2022 Alex Steinweiss at the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame<\/a>
\n\u2022 For the Record: The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss at Amazon<\/a>
\n\u2022 Alex Steinweiss at Soundfountain<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The album covers archive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrasts in Hi-Fi by Bob Sharples. A Tribute to Alex Steinweiss The Creator of the Album Cover Robert Berman Gallery announces an exhibition of Alex Steinwiss. Original album covers, paintings, and collages by Steinweiss, and special tribute by selected artists. Co-curated by Kevin Reagan and Greg Escalante. In 1939, a 23 year-old graphic designer revolutionized … Continue reading “Alex Steinweiss: creator of the album cover”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,4,48,3,44],"tags":[2295,86,909,1944,1215,1296,1778,2487,536,149,291],"class_list":["post-2777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-design","category-illustrators","category-music","category-painting","tag-alex-steinweiss","tag-barney-bubbles","tag-bob-pepper","tag-charles-mingus","tag-clive-barker","tag-duke-ellington","tag-igor-stravinsky","tag-louis-armstrong","tag-mick-haggerty","tag-neville-brody","tag-stravinsky"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-IN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}