Back in March I published a post about winners of the Tate Museum’s Turner Prize. A surprising number of these artists are involved in music projects, either as musicians themselves or as contributors of record cover art. Another post dealt with Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz’ records. Wolfgang Tillmans won the Turner Prize in 2000. He was the first non-British winner. Besides being an internationally famous photographer and conceptual artist, Tillmans has also released three extended play 12″ vinyl records and provided their cover art.
Today I went to see the Tillmans exhibition at the Tate Modern.
The queue to see the Wolfgang Tillmans retrospective at the Tate Modern.
The exhibition was vast. Unfortunately there was no audio guide to help visitors understand what the exhibition was about. I found it extremely difficult to appreciate more than a minority of the photographs on show and didn’t spend much time going through the many rooms. My feeling was that, as most photographs in true Tillmans style, were of everyday objects and often unidentified people I didn’t get much from looking at them. I obviously need a guide to looking at Tillmans art.
BUT, following Banksy’s advice, I exited through the gift shop and there were Tillmans’ three vinyl EPs on sale. As a Tate member I even got a members’ discount.
First there was the 2016-1986 EP:
Wolfgang Tillmans’ “2016-19862 EP cover.
Second: the Device Control EP:
Tillmans’ “Device Control” EP cover.
And third: the “Thats Desire” EP:
The cover of Tillmans’ latest EP “Thats Desire” EP.
Each EP comes with a mp3 download.
I couldn’t resist putting the covers of the 2016-1986 and “Device Control” EPs side by side as the pictures seemed to be from a single image photographed in different lighting conditions and with altered coloured hangings. Are they the same images but manipulated, or what?
In my last post I started researching record cover art by winners of the prestigious Turner Prize awarded annually by the Tate Gallery to an artist under the age of 50 for an exhibition. Susan Philipsz won the prize in 2010. When I started writing the previous post, I had no idea that I would have the chance to meet one of the Turner Prize winners so soon.
Philipsz (born 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland) began her artistic career as a sculptor. She was fascinated by sound and moved on to sound installations. in 2001 she recorded an a capella version of David Bowie‘s “Ziggy Stardust” album at Stockholm’s Bonnier konsthall. The recording was released on a limited edition (500 copies) Digipak CD in 2004.
Susan Philipsz’ “Ziggy Stardust” CD autographed by her.
Philipsz had an exhibition at the Gallician Centre of Contemporary Art (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2008, called “There Is Nothing Left Here“. There was a book published by the CGAC together with an LP which features sound from the exhibition in a cover showing Philipsz and one of her sisters sitting looking out over a mountain.
Susan Philipsz’ “There Is Nothing Left Here” 2008 LP.
In 2005, Malmö konsthall allowed Philipsz to use their exhibition space for an installation entitled “Stay With Me“. The hardcover exhibition catalogue also contained a CD of the sound installation.
Susan Philipsz “Stay With Me” exhibition catalogue with CD.
Susan Philipsz has again been chosen to be Bonnier konsthalls artist in residence for the first part of 2017. This time she presents a four-work exhibition called “Lost in Space“. The main work is a 23 minute film of violinist Leila Akhmetova playing a single note from the opening of Karl-Birger Blomdahl‘s opera “Aniara“. Philipsz deconstructed the music and required Akhmetova to only play each note of C. Philipsz filmed the process with a camera constantly circling Akhmetova catching her concentration on following the score while a computer screen beside indicates how the performance is progressing. Apart from a 24-page catalogue, Philipsz has produced a limited edition picture disc LP (300 copies) in a box set with a 300 page book.
The picture disc LP and book of Susan Philipsz’ “Lost in Space” installation.
At the opening of the “Lost in Space” exhibition, Susan Philipsz introduced the works in a 45.minute talk during which she explained her methods and showed films of various projects she has been involved in, including her Tate Britain installation of tones produced from wind instruments damaged in various wars from the Battle of Waterloo, The Crimea and WWI. After the talk I had the opportunity to talk with her and get the “Ziggy Stardust” CD and “Stay With Me” book signed.
The Turner Prize was instigated in 1984 by the Tate Gallery in London to recognise an exhibition by a British artist aged under 40. The Prize has been awarded yearly with the exception of 1990, when sponsorship was lacking. The basic statistics are that 6 of the 32 (one further winner was a group of indeterminate gender) prize winners (18.8%) has been male while 42 of 110 nominees (38.2%) have been men.
When I had the idea to try to see if any winners of the Tate Gallery’s Turner Prize has produced any record or CD cover art I could not have imagined that so many had done so. I have tried to research the careers of all the winners and this has turned out to be a major undertaking. In my ignorance I thought that perhaps a handful had some involvement with music but it turns out that there seems to be a unique connection between music and art – nowhere better shown than on record and CD covers. Initially, I had identified four Turner Prize winners who have their art on record or CD covers. Howard Hodgkin, Gilbert and George, Damien Hirst and Martin Creed but when I started researching further I found that many more had been involved in musical projects and many had contributed record cover art. In retrospect, it would have been easier to list the Turner Prize winners who have not been involved with music or produced cover art!
In this first part, I have so far been able to identify twelve Turner Prize winners who have their art on record or CD covers. In alphabetical order: Martin Boyce, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Gilbert and George, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Mark Leckey, Grayson Perry, Susan Philipsz, Simon Starling, Wolfgang Tillmans and Mark Wallinger.
The 1985 winner was Howard Hodgkin (born 1932) who was invited by Peter Blake to paint one of the four portraits of John Entwistle on the cover of The Who‘s 1981 “Face Dances” album.
The Who’s “Face Dances” album with Howard Hodgkin’s John Entwistle portrait third from left in row three.
I haven’t been able to find any other contributions to record cover art by Howard Hodgkin.
Gilbert & George won the Prize the following year (1986). In August 2016 they released an LP of their Museum of Modern Art show “The Singing Sculpture” from 1969.
Damien Hirst won the Turner Prize in 1995. He has not only been in a band (Fat Lez), released a single of his own together with Kate Moss, but also been responsible for about thirty record and CD covers for bands such as The Hours (which he signed to his own label ISGOOD), Babyshambles and, of course Fat Lez. He also designed the cover for DaveStewart‘s “Greetings From the Gutter” album and the singles and EPs taken from it. He was asked to design the cover for Band Aid‘s 20th anniversary re-issue of “Don’t They Know It’s Christmas?” CD but his design was considered too harrowing and was replaced by another.
Here are Dave Stewart‘s “Greetings from the Gutter”
Damien Hirst & Kate Moss “Use Money, Cheat Death”
The Hours‘ singles “Ali in the Jungle“, “Back When You Were Good“, “Love You More“, “Ali in the Jungle, 2” and “Big Black Hole”
Damien Hirst’s & Jason Beard’s covers for the five singles by The Hours.
And here are some Babyshambles covers including the album “Sequel to the Prequel“, and two limited edition singles, “Nothing Comes to Nothing” and “Fall From Grace”
Babyshambles album “Sequel to the Prequel” and the singles from it.
Next up is musician and Turner Prize winning artist Martin Creed, who won the Turner Prize in 2001. He has released several albums on both CD and vinyl with his own paintings on the covers. The Vinyl Factory has produced limited vinyl editions of at least four of his albums with covers hand painted by Martin himself. These are “Love You To“, “Chicago“, “Mind Trap” and a two-track 12″ single “Work No 1651“. Creed has also painted the cover art for a split single “Where You Go/Dawning” by Creed and Box Codax.
Five hand painted covers by Martin Creed. Clockwise from top left: “Love You to“, “Chicago“, “Work 1651“, “Where You Go/Dreaming” and “Mind Trap“.
2016 Turner Prize winner Helen Marten doesn’t appear to have her art on any record cover yet, but she has contributed the text to one track on Kasia Fudakowski‘s 2014 album “Stoikerinnen“.
Elizabeth Price, the 2012 winner, played guitar and sang in the 80s girl band Talulah Gosh, but has said that she hated being on stage. She left the band in 1987 and the band disbanded the following year. Talulah Gosh released and album, six singles plus one flexi single and there were three compilation albums. While the band’s early singles credit the cover art, later ones name Matthew Fletcher as designer. It seems Elizabeth Price didn’t design any of the band’s record covers.
Martin Boyce (born1967) won the Turner Prize in 2011. In 2008 he designed a limited edition 12″ by the American band The Aluminum Group entitled “Sign for Some Place” there was a record and an anodised plate painted with the words “Sometime Beyond Now“.
Martin Boyce’s contribution to The Aluminum Group’s 2005 12″ single.
The 2010 winner, Susan Philipsz works with sound and video and has released a CD entitled “Ziggy Stardust“and a limited edition vinyl 12″that was untitled.. In 2005 she had a solo exhibition a Malmö konsthall entitled “Stay With Me” and, as I understand it, the exhibition catalogue also contained a CD.
Richard Wright, an artist and musician received the Turner Prize in 2009 for his golden and temporary mural. I have not been able to find any record covers that are attributed to him.
Mark Leckey is also a musician and artist with three records to his credit. Leckey won the Turner Prize in 2008. The limited edition LP “Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore” was released on his own label The Death of Rave in 2012. His next LP was “Hecker Leckey Sound Voice Chimera” in 2015 and the third was “Dream English Kids 1964-1999AD“.
The 2007 Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger who mainly works in sculpture has designed the cover for Leftfield‘s 2015 album “Alternative Light Source“.
Mark Wallinger’s design for Leftfield’s album cover “Alternative Light Source”.
The conceptual artist Simon Starling won the Prize in 2006. It turns out he has been responsible for two record covers.He photographed the cover for Superstar‘s EP “Breathing Space” in 1997 and the cover of a limited edition LP by Oren Ambarchi entitled “Stacte 4“.
Jeremy Deller, the 2004 Prize winner, spent two weeks at The Factory after meeting Andy Warhol in 1986. He has a long musical history. In 1997 he fused the music of a traditional British brass band from Stockton with acid house and Detroit techno music in a project called “Acid Brass“. He contributed the photography to a book with a CD produced by the CCAC Wattis Institute entitled “After the Gold Rush“, a collaboration between Deller and Willam Elliot Whitmore, an American Blues, country and folk singer.
Jeremy Deller’s & William Elliot Whitmore’s 2002 book/CD “After the Gold Rush”.
Grayson Perry, the 2003 Turner Prize winner, works mainly in ceramics. Apparently he played in a punk band for a time, but the only connection with record cover art that Sir Peter Blake included his portrait in his 80th birthday re-working of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover art in 2012.
Wolfgang Tillmans, the German photographer, who divides his time between Berlin and London, won the Turner Prize in 2000. He was the first non-Brit to win the award. Heis a musician, having contributed the opening track to Frank Ocean‘s Album “Endless” and music for some of his own projects. Tillmans collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on their single “Home and Dry” has released two 12″ singles in his own name and is part of the collective XXX. He has designed many record and CD covers including Sun Electric‘s 1993 “Kitchen” LP, Tiga‘s 2006 single “3 Weeks” as well as a remix of it, John Maus‘ 2012 “A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material” and many others.
Wolfgang Tillmans’ 12″ “2016 / 1986”.The cover of Sun Electric’s “Kitchen” LP designed by Tillmans.The cover of Tiga’s 12″ “3 Weeks” with with detail of Tillmans’ photograph “Anemone II”.
These are the first twelve Turner Prize winners for whom I have discovered record cover art or at least a music connection. I will continue this post with details of winners of the Prize between 1988 and 1999 in a future post, so don’t go away.
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