Bidding

Minimum Bid: $100,000
Current Bid: $0
Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000

Description

The Original Album Cover Artwork for "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" by the Rolling Stones

Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches (121.92 x 91.44 cm)

Collage with original pictures pasted on canvas

Origin: The "Love You Live September" release party at Trax, New York City

Dimensions: H48 x W 36 inches ( cm)

Provenance: From the collection of Guy Peellaert

The story of this album cover is unlike its predecessors, and here's the opportunity to bid on the one-of-a-kind original cover artwork.

Peellaert was first involved with the Rolling Stones in his first book, "Rock Dreams". Since the book depicts the Rolling Stones in less than a desirable light, Peelaert captured the attention of the Rolling Stones. Despite his negative depiction, the Rolling Stones hired him to do the album artwork for their most recent project: "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" (IORR). The IORR album cover depicts the five band members descending a long staircase surrounded by "fans".

Peellaert happily experimented as a painter, illustrator, graphic artist and photographer. Through the multiple mediums Peelaert implemented, his art created a dark side to the Pop Art movement. In 1974, Elle magazine called him "the Michelangelo of Pop", a testament to his influential and collectable art, which remains in great demand today.

Although not a science, the artistic methodology often followed a specifically formulated process originating in photographic material. Due to the need for photos, Peellaert collected thousands of photographs of rock personalities, celebrities' faces, body parts, backgrounds, objects and other items of potential interest. In time this would grow into an archive of staggering size. The next step involved a rough sketch of the future composition, the equivalent of storyboarding a one-image movie.

Following a rough outline, Peelaert next painted the backgrounds and settings.

Following background scenery and storyline establishment, Peellaert would begin time-consuming picture research. Peellaert and several assistants would check their archived materials and collect material to act as the building blocks of his creations. Most photos originate from magazines and books that Peellaert assembled into his visual database during the Pop Art period. Acquisition of additional images included sourcing from picture agencies while shooting the rest directly with a Polaroid camera. Like many artists and non-artists at the time, Peelaert constantly took photos of his friends, himself, and even strangers to contribute to his archive.

A single photomontage involves dozens of such elements to construct the desired medley. An example of Peeleart's methods is the substitution of heads on the bodies of his friends. Each had to be printed individually at the exact scale required by the final composition. Upon completing the collage, Peelaert would print the photographs of the dozens of composite layers on a specific photo paper allowing the colour application.

Peelaert implements airbrush technics to apply colour while adorning small acrylic flourishes to emphasize specific effects. An example of acrylic accents is the white sheen on some of the faces of IORR.

Depicted in the image are 116 females and the five band members. Originally featuring 31 specific faces to use for all of the females, the final album cover hosted an additional person has been added to the vestibule (32 instead of 31, seen here), which has 117 females.

Let all the obsessives among us check that while the normies move along.

Offered here is the original collage that Peellaert created for the album cover. Arguably one of the greatest albums of all time, this original art is a masterpiece that would be a timeless addition to anyone's collection.

Comes with a letter of provenance and a Gotta Have Rock and Roll Certificate of Authenticity.

[www.gottahaverockandroll.com]

Quote
bye bye johnny
the book depicts the Rolling Stones in less than a desirable light

yeah that is an understatement... iirc the band was dressed in black Gestapo uniforms and it was surrounded with blonde naked 10yo girls.

Nazis and paedophiles... Ahem.

It's only rock & roll. What's next, Some Girls ? Nothing wrong with the album covers when the vinyl got released. I'm not going to bid though.

I loved this cover when I first saw it. Nothing but decadence. They looked so burnt out from it all.

Matt, would you go for this one?

~"Love is Strong"~

Quote
dcba

Quote
bye bye johnny
the book depicts the Rolling Stones in less than a desirable light

yeah that is an understatement... iirc the band was dressed in black Gestapo uniforms and it was surrounded with blonde naked 10yo girls.

Nazis and paedophiles... Ahem.

Si Si.

Quote
angee
Matt, would you go for this one?

No disrespect to John Pelleart but he ain't no Warhol. It doesn't meant to say it isn't worth 15 to 25k but there is no way this is a 100k plus piece,

Ah, thank you, makes sense, for a photo-collage, as I might call it.

~"Love is Strong"~



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-05-23 06:10 by angee.

On the album cover it looks like the women on both sides are waving to each other adoringly and ignoring the Stones.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-05-23 13:30 by Taylor1.

I've always been quite intrigued by this cover...

I'm not big into cover art but it's one that triggers a real vibe when you see it.

In my early years I thought of it as hail to The Stones. Now many years later and different opinions I’m not sure what to think. Maybe it was meant to be a lighthearted goof. Who knows. But I’m in total agreement of it being overpriced.

Peellaert was the "it" artist of the era as Jagger was just becoming enamored of the celeb lifetyle. Peellaert's Rock Dreams collection, in paperback book form, was by turns lurid and humorous. It's interesting to see that he created montages, copied them with a PhotoStat machine and then, apparently, hand tinted them with Luma-Dyes or the like. Cool technique but I have to believe more than one photographer came after him for copyright reasons.

Funnily enough, the Lynn Goldsmith/Warhol Foundation lawsuit over Prince delved into the exact same issues of fair use.

Quote
Spud
I've always been quite intrigued by this cover...

I'm not big into cover art but it's one that triggers a real vibe when you see it.

You are right. One of my favorite covers

Lurv it .... great cover

Mick in that over-sized Elvis like suit .... Yeah lurv it



ROCKMAN

Auction ended on 6/3. Item didn't sell.

There were no bids.

[www.gottahaverockandroll.com]

Matt L was right

Peelleart also did the cover of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" album.

His "Rock Dreams" book was popular when it came out in 1973.

Diamond Dogs on Wikipedia