During my visit to the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, two years ago, I noticed a familiar name on the purchase order for the cover art of the 1956 jazz album Cool Gabriels on RCA’s Groove label: A.R Lehman. This means that […]
Elvis has never left the building
Now let’s throw some Elvises in the mix! The famous Silver Elvis paintings Andy Warhol has created in 1963 for Irving Blum’s Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, have proven to be immensely popular for appropiation, and they still are. Also on record covers. I know, […]
Enzo Avitabile and his shocking chair
What makes writing this blog very rewarding, is when fellow collectors get in touch, and share their knowledge of local Warhol (or Warhol inspired) covers. Recently I got a message from Paolo Verda, an Italian architect, art and music lover, writer of prestigious books on […]
Andy Warhol was mad, David Shrigley is bananas
This post is not about an Andy Warhol design, but about a record cover done by the British artist David Shrigley that has a lot of Warhol going on. In 2012 the Californian label Castle Face released the tribute album The Velvet Underground & Nico, […]
Reid Miles & (just a dash of) Julia Warhola: MONK, Prestige Records 7053 (1958)
The last cover to be discussed in this series of posts about Reid Miles and Andy Warhol, is that of the Thelonious Monk album on the Prestige label, with serial number PRLP 7053. The Reid Miles cover was issued in 1958. There is a lot […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol’s Mother: The Story Of Moondog, Prestige Records 7099 (1957)
In 1957 Reid Miles did the design for The Story Of Moondog, an album by the blind avant garde musician and street poet and performer Louis Hardin a.k.a. Moondog, who in New York was also known as the “Viking Of 6th Avenue” because of his […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Trombone by Three, Pres 16-4 (1957)
Reid Miles’ work for Blue Note was not exclusive. Because of his good understanding with label owners Lion and Wolff, he was also allowed to do design jobs for other labels. Miles designed some great covers for Prestige Records, among which three with Andy Warhol. […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights, Blue Note 1596 & 1597, Volume 1 and 2 (1958)
The third and last Miles-Warhol project for Blue Note Records is my favorite: Blue Lights, again by Kenny Burrell, and released in two separate volumes with a different color background. In the Fifties, records with a what now is familiarily called “cheese cake” photo on […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580 (1958)
The next Warhol-Miles cooperation for Blue Note records follows the same path as the Kenny Burrell album: in 1956 there was an album called Introducing Johnny Griffin, with a cover designed by Reid Miles and a photo of Griffin by Francis Wolff. So for the […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Kenny Burrell – Blue Note 1543 (1956-1957)
This is the first of six short posts I will write about the great album covers that art director Reid Miles and Andy Warhol created together between 1956 and 1958: three covers for Blue Note Records and three for Prestige Records. The first one for […]
Reid Miles and Warhol: the shoe, the nudes, the letterhead
“For me work is an upper, a great high. I have no personal life. I don’t want it.” Those could have easily been Andy Warhol’s words, but they were not. Its’ a quote from an interview with art director Reid Miles in People Magazine, in […]
“Andy and André”, a Viennese operetta in three acts
Although I have a copy of Warhol’s (in)famous Diaries for years already – including the two unofficial indexes of celebrity namedropping published by the magazines Spy and Face – I decided to also purchase a Kindle version. At a low price of $3.60, how can […]
