Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for March, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for March, 2023

Posted March 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

February might be a bit shorter than other months, but that doesn’t mean that we album art/artist fans were short-changed in the news department. Starting off with the Grammy Awards and continuing with new exhibitions, art and book releases and a lot of ancillary items, there’s plenty for us fans of album cover art/artistry to dig into, so let’s cut the chit-chat and take a look at what I’ve put together for you.

Preliminary judging has begun on the entries vying for another noted industry award – the Making Vinyl Packaging Awards – and, as one of the judges on the panel tasked to review the hundreds of submissions received, I’m curious and eager to see what always turns out to me a fascinating cross-section of examples of album covers/packages coming in from all over the world.

This month’s newsletter contains a human-curated (as opposed to an AI-generated – we’re old school here at the ACHOF) summary of the news in all of the main topic areas, with updates and info about several new museum and gallery exhibitions, new auctions and sales and a goodly number of art and artist-related articles. As always, I’d like to once again say “thanks” for your help and support, so  let’s get started with some updates on the award shows recently ended and currently in progress:

ACHOF Breaking News for April 13th, 2022 – Auction/Sale Update

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Breaking News for April 13^th, 2022 – Auction/Sale Update, by Mike Goldstein

With two interesting auctions on line now that end before the end of April, I felt compelled to share these with you ASAP – happy hunting!

a) The venerable Bonham’s auction house has just launched a new online-only auction (Bonham’s: Hip-Hop Online) that is a must-take-a-look-at event for collectors of everything hip-hop related. Curated by the equally-venerable Howard Kramer (former chief curator at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), this auction includes a number of items produced by some of the top photographers (Mannion, Mark Seliger, Jesse Frohman, Clay Patrick McBride, David Corio, Sunny Bak and many others) whose works have been used on some of the genre’s best-known album covers, along with scores of classic posters and related bits of rare memorabilia (I’m particularly fond on Lyle Owerko’s homages to the king of 80s playback technology, the boombox).

Browse through the collection via this link – https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27550/hip-hop-online/? The auction comes to a close at 10:00 EDT on the 21^st of April, so waste no time and take a look ASAP.

Album Cover Hall of Fame Breaking News for January 14th, 2022

posted 1/14/22 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame

a) The long-promised first “episode” of the tour through the “Art On My Sleeves” exhibition is now up and available for viewing at your leisure. The focus of this article is on the covers featured in the section titled “All Nerve”, which shows a good number of examples of great graphic design produced over the past 50+ years and includes works by both very well-known designers/studios (George Hardie, Hipgnosis, Barney Bubbles, Vaughan Oliver and Chris Bigg of v23, etc) and some perhaps lesser-known talents whose work nonetheless is memorable and eye-catching. There’s a lot to see and learn, so why not just click on over to https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/achof-presents-the-art-on-my-sleeves-series-episode-1-all-nerve-album-cover-graphic-design/ to begin your journey?

ACHOF Breaking News Update for November 10th, 2021

Posted November 10^th, 2021 by Mike Goldstein

Bonham’s Head of Pop Culture Claire Tole-Mor recently shared an article of some of her favorite items going up for bid at their 11/11 “Pop X Culture” and 11/17 “Rock and Pop” auctions – https://www.bonhams.com/video/33186/?

The works of some of rock music’s best-known image-makers (Neal Preston, Gered Mankowitz, Bob Gruen, Jill Furmanovsky and many others) are represented in these collections, so please feel free to read Claire’s intro and then take a look at what’s available. Some pre-Holidays shopping, perhaps?

Link to Nov. 11 auction (in London) – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26828/

Link to Nov. 17 auction (in London) – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26822/

Bit of trivia – the Nov. 17^th auction includes items from the estate of the late actress Diana Rigg (The Avengers on TV, many musicals). What’s the ACHOF connection? She served as the cover model for The Cuff Links’ 1969 album Tracy that contained the hit single by the same name.

ACHOF Breaking News Update for April 23, 2021

Looking for a good way to invest your latest stimulus check besides NFTs, crypto-currencies or short-squeezing stocks?

Consider these items:

1) The original painting by commercial artist/designer Gary Norman that graced the cover of Boston’s 1978 smash hit album Don’t Look Back is one of the featured items in an upcoming “Illustration Art Signature Auction” to be staged by Heritage Auctions and scheduled for next Friday, April 30th.

After receiving the original painting (done with airbrush and acrylics on a 25” x 46” board) back from the label (surprise!), Gary hung it in a spare bedroom, where it’s sat for the past 40 years. According to the article on the Art Daily site – https://artdaily.cc/news/135040/Original-artwork-for-Boston-s–Don-t-Look-Back–heads-to-Heritage-Auctions#.YILvnpBKg7M – he just thought that it was time to find it a new home. Based on the fact that bidding so far has blown through the original $5-7,000 pre-auction estimate (bidding stands at over $15K at the time of this writing), it will be finding itself in a very nice new home sometime soon.

To see the item and consider a bid yourself, head on over to the Heritage Auction site – https://fineart.ha.com/itm/pulp-pulp-like-digests-and-paperback-art/gary-norman-american-20th-century-boston-don-t-look-back-album-cover-1978acrylic-and-airbrush-o/a/8030-71060.s Don’t look back post-auction and, instead of feeling satisfied, you find that you’ve become the man you’ll never be – it’s easy to bid and, if you win, party!

2) Several album cover-related lots are featured in an upcoming Bonham’s auction in London – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26708/?#/aa1=1&MR1_length=48&w1=list&q1=album%2520cover&m1=1

Many of the items in the grouping that will be auctioned off on May 5^th come from the personal collection of famed UK music producer Harvey Goldsmith, perhaps best-known to fans in the US as the promoter for such famed events as Live Aid, the several live tours of Pink Floyd’s The Wall  and the Prince’s Trust charity concerts. As a pre-auction bonus, the team at Bonham’s has organized a Zoom conference-based interview with Mr. Goldsmith on Thursday, April 29^th at 6PM London time during which, according to pre-show publicity, he’ll be “joined by Journalist and Broadcaster John Wilson to reflect on his pop culture-defining career, share music industry insider knowledge, and discuss highlights from Goldsmith’s personal collection going under the hammer in our Entertainment Memorabilia auction at Bonhams”.

In addition to the host of items from Mr. Goldsmith’s collection, several lots that devotees of album cover imagery will appreciate include:

a) a concept drawing of the art Ray Lowry was working on for one of the best-known album covers of all time, that being London Calling by The Clash. Photographer Pennie Smith’s slightly-blurred B&W photo of a frustrated Paul Simonon smashing his bass on a stage is burned into our collective minds, but it was designer/artist Ray Lowry’s layout and text (inspired by an early Elvis Presley record cover) that delivered the completed image to us. What’s more, Heaven 17 fans will also have the chance to bid on three of artist Ray Smith’s original cover paintings for the band’s Penthouse & Pavement, The Luxury Gap and How Men Are albums;

b) Beatles fans can bid to own one of three lots from the estate of the late photographer Iain Macmillan, including two art prints of his famous “The Beatles On Abbey Road” image (pre-auction estimates from $21-28,000) plus a mock-up and set of seven photo prints from the photo session for Paul McCartney’s 1993 Paul Is Live record during which the pair reprised the stroll over the crosswalk located in front of the Abbey Road/EMI studios.

c) Another item that should draw keen interest from both art and music memorabilia collectors is a print of Sir Peter Blake’s cover image for The Who’s 1981 release Face Dances that’s been signed by Sir Peter, four members of the band and eight of the artists whose works were included in Blake’s design (including Clive Barker!). The print was owned by Jim Callaghan, who provided security for the band while on tour from 1975-83 and who got the art (and the signatures) at the record’s launch party. With a pre-auction estimate of $1100 – $1700 – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26708/lot/124/ – this should also go for a multiple of that. There are nearly 300 other items of note in the auction, so please go take a look, and here’s wishing Claire Tole-Moir and her team good luck in her efforts.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Summary Bonus Update for September 2, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

ACHOF BONUS NEWS CONTENT –
UPDATED September 2, 2020

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Just as I was hitting the “publish” button on my site – the one that sent my September 1 update out into the EtherWebs – several new alerts arrived that were timely enough that I thought it important to share them with you (as if I didn’t give you enough to read and ponder on Tuesday!). So, here ya go:

Album Cover Hall of Fame Special Auction News Edition – June 24, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

An Album Cover Hall of Fame Special Auction News Edition for June 24th, 2020

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

I know, I know, I’m early, but I thought you’d want to know about the results of three recent auctions I previously reported on, with some of the results confirming, once again, that “money talks”:

1) To follow up on my early June posting about photographer Mark Seliger’s fund-raising auction of 26 of his photo portraits of celebrities from the worlds of music, film, TV, stage and politics, I’d like to report that the total raised for the COVID-19 relief organizations he’s supporting was a remarkable $232,375, with the item raising the most money – that being Seliger’s portrait of past President Barack Obama – selling for an impressive $37,500. Well done, Mr. Seliger!

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Summary – June, 2020

 

 

 

Posted June 1, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings once again from my office – a place I’ve been spending WAY too much time in lately on account of the local/state “keep away from others” rules currently protecting me from that crummy COVID bug. Like many of you, I’ve been staring at screens half the day, and while I’ve been committed to getting out of the house at least a minute or two every day (long walks around the neighborhood and visits to local parks have been great sanity-savers), I’m both completely understanding that keeping my distance from others is my best option for continued good health and really anxious to return to whatever “normal” life will be soon.

Album Cover Artist And Art News Summary And Preview For July/August, 2018

 

ALBUM COVER HALL OF FAME’S ALBUM COVER NEWS RECAP FOR THE MONTH OF JULY, 2018, WITH PREVIEWS FOR AUGUST.

 

 

 

 

 

BY MIKE GOLDSTEIN, ALBUMCOVERHALLOFFAME.COM

Greetings to you all. Work continues on updating the biography section of the ACHOF web site and so, as I noted last month, this month’s news summary is an abridged one, with less commentary from me and a somewhat-reduced number of stories featured in each section. Even so, much work continues in this area, and there’s a lot to review – interviews, profiles, news about new books and prints, etc. – that I think you’ll appreciate and enjoy. As you’ve seen in my previous news summaries, if you simply read the summaries I’ve written and click the links provided, you’ll get the details from sources from around the world on items featuring many of your favorite – or soon to be favorite – album art creators.

Album Cover Art and Artist News Summary for the month of November, 2016

ALBUM COVER HALL OF FAME’S ALBUM COVER NEWS RECAP FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, 2016

 

By Mike Goldstein, Curator/Editor, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

It’s early December, 2016, and WOW! has a lot happened since we last communicated. Of course, the results of the U.S. elections early in the month have either demoralized or energized half the population here, with only the news of the Chicago Cubs breaking their 108-year World Series drought bringing everyone together in peace and harmony, if only for a short while…With all of the uncertainty remaining as to what’s in store for us here, you’d think that there’d have been a brief slow-down in the output of news relating to the art and music scenes but, no, creative people continue to do what comes naturally and, therefore, other people with related businesses and interests (galleries, publishers, collectors, etc.) continue to do what they do to share what they do with the rest of us. As you’ll find in this most-recent summary of news from the world of album cover artists and the wonderful products they’re creating for us fans and collectors of the genre, I believe that we’ll all find enough inspiration to see us through whatever comes our way.