The concept of blending the visual language of art with the sound language of music first appeared in the Pop era: pop music made art popular and art repaid the favour in an intellectual key. This indissoluble relationship lies at the heart of Sound & Vision, a book that retraces 40 years of famous collaborations between art and music. From the one that still remains the most celebrated – the Velvet Underground and their Pygmalion Andy Warhol – to more recent ones such as the visionary poetics of videomaker Chris Cunningham and the sounds elaborated by electronics genius Aphex Twin. The book also deals with some significant Made in Italy cases like the adventure of artist Mario Schifano who, following the planetary success of Andy Warhol and his “creatures”, launched a band called Le Stelle in pursuit of his dream of a total art work. With a rich iconographic selection of over 200 images and with carefully chosen critical contributions the book sets out from the unrestrained neo-avant-garde punk rockers of the 60’s, continuing on down to the new generation of glamour and sexy tone artist-photographers who, with their mastery of sophisticated digital technologies, have succeeded in transforming simple CD sleeves into actual masterpieces.
works by: John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Bjork/Gabriela Fridriksdottir, Robert Mapplethorpe/Patti Smith, U2, Depeche Mode/Anton Corbijn, David La Chapelle, Annie Leibowitz, Bruce Weber, Juergen Teller, Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Raymond Pettibon, Floria Sigismondi...