10 Album Cover Artworks Created by Famous Fine Artists

10 Famous Fine Artists, 10 Album Cover Artworks.

Album cover artwork design has always been an extra dimension of creativity, or stress, for musicians, artists, bands, or singers.

There are a variety of iconic album cover artwork designs, some that create a contrast to the music, some that enhance or express the essence of the album, while other covers take a more literal approach (for example, Pink Floyd’s The Wall).

Since there is an additional layer of imagination, some musicians choose to take it a step further by bringing in talented fine artists to put their signature on the produced record. We’ve gathered ten examples of album cover artworks created by well-known artists.

Here are 10 albums with covers created by well-known fine artists:

Andy Warhol: Nico & The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico

Andy Warhol designed the now-famous banana artwork for a collaboration album between German singer Nico and The Velvet Underground. It is possibly one of the most famous album covers in history.

The Velvet Underground and Nico’s artwork are typical of Warhol, who is known for his pop art. There are several variations available, all featuring Andy Warhol’s signature, including a peelable version that shows a pink, pop-art banana between the yellow and black peel.

Andy Warhol: The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers

The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, released in 1971, represented the band’s revival of form. Sticky Fingers songs are mainly the work of the four members of the band, instead of layers of production, percussion, and extra musicians, after years of experimentation.

Andy Warhol’s artwork for Sticky Fingers originally had a zipper that opened to show the man’s underpants, but later revisions merely included a shot of the closed zipper because the method had destroyed the vinyl sleeves and records themselves. They were also extremely costly to create and difficult to sell at that price.

Banksy: Blur, Think Tank

While Banksy’s identity is mysterious, their efforts on the art scene have not gone unnoticed. Banksy is famous for artworks such as Love is in the Air (Flower Thrower) and a series of murals called Girl with a Balloon. He also sold a printed and framed version of Girl with a Balloon, but it destroyed itself before the eyes of all the people in the auction. Keep reading about Banksy’s shredded artwork here.

Banksy also created the album artwork for Blur’s Think Tank album. The album is a broad concept album about “love and politics,” a contrast frequently seen in Banksy’s artworks.

Think Tank is the only commercial project that Banksy has ever done, despite his overall dislike for them. In response to criticism, Banksy said they believe it’s okay to work on “something you believe in; doing something commercial doesn’t turn it into shit just because it’s commercial.”

Damien Hirst: Red Hot Chili Peppers, I’m With You.

Damien Hirst is an artist and art collector who created the cover artwork for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2011 album I’m With You. Hirst, who dominated the English art scene throughout the 1990s, is also known for his formaldehyde sculptures, in which creatures are submerged in a pool where time stops.

This design is similar to the I’m With You artwork, which shows a fly sitting on a pink and white pill. At the time, vocalist Anthony Keidis of the band didn’t give much thought to the painting’s specific significance, saying, “It’s a piece of art.” Iconic. We didn’t grant it a meaning, but it’s obvious that it’s able to be interpreted.”

The pill refers to Hirst’s previous work involving pharmacies from the 1990s, as well as the obvious scientific, life, and death themes present in his formaldehyde sculptures.

Gerhard Richter: Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation

German artist Gerhard Richter designed the artwork for Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, a break from his normal color studies. Richter is recognized for his colorful artworks, which he creates by scraping, smearing, and layering paint onto itself, exposing forms and depth, and are known by simple phrases such as abstract Painting, abstract Picture, and abstracts Bild.

Richter’s work varied from abstract to stunningly realistic, with Sonic Youth selecting Kerze (“Candle”) for their 1988 album. Kerze is one of Richter’s oil paintings from a series.

Jean-Paul Goude: Grace Jones, Nightclubbing

In one word, Jean-Paul Goude is creative. He’s a designer, artist, photographer, commercial video director, and event planner who photographed Grace Jones’ now-iconic cover photo for her album Nightclubbing.

Grace Jones stood out in a dark suit against a beige background, the white of her cigarette poking through, her angular haircut corresponding to the sharp shoulder pads, and her beautiful features, in striking contrast to the rest of the disco scene, which was suited up to the nines in jewelry and loud clothing items. “I wanted to emphasize her masculinity—to use what others believed was an embarrassment and turn it to her advantage,” Goude stated in 1981 in a film. ”

Mark Ryden: Tyler, The Creator Wolf

Mark Ryden is well-known around the world for his outstanding artworks that feature doll-like characters in heartbreakingly beautiful, dream-like scenes. Pop-surrealism is a style that pushes the boundaries of art through a type of augmented reality.

Ryden created the album artwork for Wolf for Tyler, The Creator. Tyler is shown riding a bike and sitting with his lips open in front of a lake. Tyler is surrounded by an eyeball in the tree trunk, a baby sprouting, and a teddy bear-like creature strolling behind him in what seems to be an ordinary, simple scene. Ryden’s work is instantly recognizable, and the Wolf artwork is no exception.

Roy Lichtenstein: Bobby “O”, I Cry for You

Together with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein helped develop the pop art trend. The sarcasm and humor in his artworks, along with his use of digital media to create layers and depth in color, have made him popular.

Lichtenstein’s style is inspired by comic books, as can be seen in the cover art for Bobby “OI “‘s Cry for You. The artwork for the single and LP portrayed a lady with tears pouring down her cheeks, with the movement within the image suggesting she’s moving quickly. There’s also a variation that focuses just on the eye, with tears falling over the frame around it.

Robert Mapplethorpe: Patti Smith, Horses

Photography may appear to be a simple concept for album artwork, yet few photographs capture the character of a record—the sorrow and anguish of music like Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph for Horses’ album cover artwork.

The artwork, which is part of a series of photographs, portrays Smith in a white button-up shirt with suspenders and her jacket hung over her shoulder. The art was undoubtedly created by Robert Mapplethorpe, with his style consisting almost entirely of black-and-white photographs of celebrity portraits, male and female nudity, and still-life shots. They all capture the heart of a moment in some way.

Salvador Dali: Jackie Gleason, Lonesome Echo

Salvador Dali’s paintings are immediately identifiable, with his representations of surreal scenes sharing depth and clarity.

This appears on Jackie Gleeson’s Lonesome Echo album cover artwork from 1955. Dali created a desert-like scene, with the shadows getting extended at the end of the day, borrowing from his previous works from the 1930s that studied the relationship between perspective and depth. The lone walker tends to add perspective to the butterfly totem and rock that appear in the artwork, while the lute seems to be human-sized.