Pop surrealist Mati Klarwein 1932-2002
The artist behind the unforgettable album covers of Santana and fusion-era Miles Davis, Mati Klarwein, is dead at age 70.
When I first discovered these records as a teenager, the covers fascinated me almost as much as the music inside, but I never knew anything about the artist. Now they seem more than a bit embarrassing, full of orientalist nonsense and T&A-mag caricatured sexuality. And yet, ordinary T&A album cover art can be absorbed in a glance, whereas Klarwein's paintings provoke hours of study. In that respect they resemble the music: pop art, not "fine" art, yet dense with evocative detail.
Santana and Davis are said to have selected or commissioned the covers themselves, even the cartoonish Live-Evil diptych, so at least their relationship to the music isn't dismissable as pure record company marketing. (See George for more links; via Dr. Menlo.)
(Amazon lists Klarwein's books in the $200-$2200 price range. How is that possible?)