[78-L] RIP Alex Steinweiss

[David Lennick]

A funny thing here..I wanted to pull a couple of Steinweiss illustrations from
jazz albums, so I reached for a late 40s Bix issue and one of Louis
Armstrong..and they were both by Jim Flora. Huh! (Not to worry, Steinweiss
definitely did jazz albums in the early days..C57, Louis Armstrong's Hot 5,
shows Satchmo as a fireman.)


dl

On 7/20/2011 1:35 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> On 7/20/2011 7:47 AM, David Lewis wrote:
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/business/media/alex-steinweiss-originator-of-artistic-album-covers-dies-at-94.html?_r=4&hpw
>>
>> Dr. Mike has proven that Steinweiss' claim to have "originated ... album covers" is at least a little suspect. But his passing is certainly a milestone worth observing, and I feel that his work was important.
>>
>> Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com 	
>
> I agree that his passing is a sad event.  I always said that he was an
> inventive illustrator and that I had collected many of his covers -- it
> was just that he was not THE inventor or originator of the IDEA of
> having illustrations on album covers.  That was the theory of the
> overworked under-reseaercher Steven Heller who wrote this obit and did
> the titles and essatys for the two books on Steinweiss.  This guy has
> written waaaaayyyyy too many books and essays on art and has perhaps
> become very sloppy in researching his topics, at least in this case.
>
> But I see signs that he has gotten at least part of the message I have
> been putting forth.  Note that he now says that " Most albums were
> unadorned,"  where he had previously not admitted that there had been
> any.  However he continues to show his lack of any first-hand research
> by stating next: " and on those occasions when art was used, it was not
> original."  This is based on a statement he read that Victor had used
> classic paintings on a few covers.  There are two or three where they
> did, but there are well over a hundred covers from the two or three
> years before Steinweiss' first cover which did have original artwork,
> photographs, and/or typography.  Heller has too much invested in his
> unresearched theory to give it up.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>