One Thing Leads to Another

Recently, when browsing on Boo-Hooray, an online underground movement archive, to my surprise, I noticed that they featured my art created in 1979 in their "Record Dreams" catalogue.

I created that art on my kitchen table as the LP cover for the then-unknown Croatian punk band Dirty Theater (Prljavo kazaliste). I came up with the idea for this cover partly because the band was very young and didn't know exactly how to play. They wanted to sound like The Rolling Stones, but they sounded punk because of their lack of skills. Also, referencing The Rolling Stone's song "Some Girls", Dirty Theater had a song named "Some Boys". Because of all these elements, I created this image. The record became an instant hit in Yugoslavia. 

After that, I did many other things. I moved to the US and almost forgot about that project. 

Suddenly, in 2012, the Hayward Gallery in London created "Someday All the Adults Will Die": Punk Graphics 1971—1984 show. Among others, they exhibited my cover.

In the review of their show, The Huffington Post featured my art with the caption "One of the revolutionary graphics on show". 

Soon after that, Rizzoli published the book "Punk: An Aesthetic", in which they featured Dirty Theater's LP. I was extremely pleased because Dirty Theater's LP was featured on a spread with one of my favourite records, "No Exist" by The Clash.

In 2018, Jens Muller and Julius Wiedemann featured the cover art in a spread about my work in their monumental 2-volume book "The History of Graphic Design" published by Taschen.

Then, the cherry on the cake, in 2023, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York) included that cover in their collection. 

Not bad for a 2-day work on a kitchen table.

 

My recent acquisition, "Lotus" by Santana

Lotus is a 1974 live LP album by the band Santana, recorded in Osaka, Japan in July 1973. The Welcome album recording sessions were completed shortly before this concert, and that album was later released in November. Lotus was originally released in 1974 as a triple vinyl LP in Japan only. This version of the album was later released internationally. 

This amazingly complex and beautiful LP is designed by the leading Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. 

Here, here, and here, you can read my past posts about Tadanori.

 

Blast from the past.

By pure chance, I came across this article from Huffington Post from 2012 announcing an exhibition that explores the influence of the punk movement on art and Graphic design.

The article is illustrated by one of the items in the exhibition, the record cover design I made for the Croatian band Prljavo kazaliste in 1979 with the caption "One of the revolutionary graphics on show".

 

 

"M.Frog" by Milton Glaser

I just acquired this unusual LP record from 1973 by M.Frog (Jean Yves Labat). The album sleeve is unusual because on the front of the sleeve a page of a pamphlet is attached, which usually is inside of the sleeve. 

 
The pamphlet includes an attempt by Labatt to produce a way of writing musical notation using colour and graph paper. 

 
What is really special to me is that it was designed by Milton Glaser.

 

 

Photograph by Bernard Pierre Wolff

Recently, I acquired this photograph by Bernard Pierre Wolff shot on his trip in 1967 to Bosnia, Yugoslavia.

Probably the most known photograph by Bernard Wolff is album cover for Closer, by Joy Division from 1980.