Music to watch. Author covers and vinyl from 1940 to today. Precious exhibition at the Palazzo dei Priori in Fermo. – Carlo Franza’s blog

An extraordinary collection of vinyls colors Palazzo dei Priori in Fermo. The exhibition presents a selection of over 230 author covers from 1940 to today, collected out of passion by Alessandro Biocca in over 35 years. An immersion in modern and contemporary music and art, which will enchant enthusiasts and not only.

Andy Warhol, Mirò, Oliviero Toscani, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Tom Hingston, Milo Manara, Banksy. They are just some of the artists who created the over 230 vinyl covers exhibited at Palazzo dei Priori in Fermo from August 9th to November 3rd, 2024 in the exhibition “MUSIC TO LOOK AT. Author covers and vinyl from 1940 to today”edited by Alessandro Biocca.

This evocative exhibition touches on several musical genres and offers an overview of the history of modern and contemporary music and art from the 1940s to today, through the authorial covers of vinyl records and some of its greatest protagonists. From the artists of pop art and surrealism such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali to great photographers like Helmut Newton, Mapplethorpe, Ghirri and important designers and cartoonists such as Andrea Pazienza, Manara, Crepax, Zerocalcare up to the psychedelic art of Bob Pepper.

The vinyls on display are a selection chosen by the vast Alessandro Biocca’s private collection, consisting of over 8500 vinyl recordsthe result of meticulous research, collection and cataloguing conducted over 35 years. An exhibition that will enchant music lovers and others, for the free, extraordinary and sometimes provocative way of communicating of these covers, between energy and fantasy.

The exhibition is promoted by the Municipality of Fermo and organized by Maggioli Cultura e Turismo. The exhibition presents an artistic-musical journey through seven sectionsreferring to the categories of Alessandro Biocca’s collection: first covers, photos, graphics, drawings and comics, contemporary art, censored, printing errors.

Curator and collector Alessandro Biocca explains: «The real lack, that no digital device will ever be able to fill, is the one that comes from the visual experience. The one given by the cover of a record and that had its maximum peak in the period that goes from 1948 to 1982, that is, in the parabola that begins when the LP was invented and ends when the first Compact Disc was presented. The New Wave was the last musical genre to exploit the glorious potential of the 31.43 cm square canvas of the 12-inch record.».

The LPs of the greatest interpreters of music are unmissable on displayItalian and international physics: Lucio Dalla, Roberto Vecchioni, Fabrizio De Andrè, Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Massive Attack, Queen, Patti Smith, Lady Gaga… The history of vinyl covers begins in 1939 with the 23-year-old Alex Steinweiss, hired as art director by Columbia, the oldest American music company. He was in charge of designing brochures, posters and catalogs; he quickly realized that the “anonymous” way in which records were packaged was not very effective in getting noticed, especially because, at the time, they were usually sold in appliance stores in the phonograph and gramophone section. Alex Steinweiss, with no small difficulty posed by the exponential increase in the costs of producing a record, managed to get the green light to create some personalized covers, such as the album “Smash Hits By Rodgers & Hart” by Rodgers & Hart. Steinweiss had not only invented a genre, but had added a whole new dimension to the experience of listening to musicrecorded. The visual one. Instead of simply drawing a portrait of the artist, he also used cultural and musical symbols related to the record or the life and times of the musician.

«In a 1947 collection of Boogie Woogie for example – tells Alessandro Biocca – he drew two large hands, one white and one black, that together play a piano and symbolize ethnic equality. A very current theme in America in those years. Furthermore, the cover image that Steinweiss designed for the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat – The Emperor by Beethoven in 1941, was a source of inspiration for Storm Thorgerson who in 1973 created the famous cover of “The Dark Side Of The Moon” by Pink Floyd».

From 1943 to 1945 the position of artistic director of Columbia was held by Jim Flora whose work was characterized by fantasy. Elegant flying musicians and instruments suspended in the void on unstable perspectives subverted the laws of physics. Even human anatomy was not exempt from his reinterpretations, which gave the drawings a comical and at the same time disturbing tone. His place, from 1945 to 1953, was entrusted to Robert M. Jones who, to satisfy the huge demand for covers, also employed external designers. In 1949, for the LP reissue of “A Program Of Mexican Music” by Carlos Chávez, he commissioned 21-year-old Andrew Warhola Jr., who went down in history as Andy Warhol.

Again in 1948, Alex Steinweiss was given the task of designing the packaging for the new invention for listening to music, the vinyl record which, unlike the 78 rpm, needed a packaging that would protect the grooves from scratches caused by the heavy cardboard sleeves used up until that time. His design, with only a few small modifications, is still the standard in vinyl record packaging today.

In 1950 the era of covers with photographs began and, a few years later, painting also winked at record covers. Artists from the most diverse genres, from that moment on, have tried their hand at artworks that, more and more often, take on an equal role with respect to the music they accompany. Not simple ornamentation, but completion of a work. Images that sometimes clash with common thinking, whether dictated by a religious or political belief, and in some cases considered threatening to the point of being censored, like the covers of “The Wall” by Pink Floyd or “Nevermind” by Nirvana.

A section of the exhibition is dedicated to the printing errors. That is, some records that, albeit in very limited quantities and for inexplicable reasons, entered the market with sensational graphic oversights, which made them become cult objects and sought after by collectors all over the world, such as the incorrect copy of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” by Bob Dylan and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen.

Carlo Franza