ART & RECORDSLEEVES
Jan Vollaard writes on pop music for NRC Handelsblad, nrc.next and various other publications. A recurring theme in his 25 years as a critic and interviewer is the relationship between sound and image as seen on record sleeves, in music videos and in live performances. In 2009, in cooperation with De Lakenhal in Leiden, he produced an article and lecture titled “Bubbles and High Art: Relating Barney Bubbles to Theo van Doesburg and contemporaries” in which he discussed the influence of the artists Theo van Doesburg, El Lissitsky and their contemporaries on album design. Vollaard is an avowed lover of art and architecture.One of his hobbies is playing the theremin, an electronic instrument which is played without touch.
In his keynote Vollaard will consider the relationship between art and album design, from Sgt. Pepper to the Sex Pistols and from hippie music to the hi-tech record sleeves of New Order and Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark. Record sleeve designers such as Barney Bubles and Peter Saville were directly inspired by examples from art and architectural history. Artists such as Peter Blake, Andy Warhol, Anton Corbijn and Banksy designed ground-breaking record sleeves and even Salvador Dali dabbled in rock & roll. The record sleeve is the ultimate in pop art, contemporary art accessible to all. Vollaard will illustrate this with visuals and, where necessary, audio under the motto “Sex and Art and Rock & Roll”.
