Photo: Paul Postle
Photo: Paul Postle
27th July – 14th August 2012
Exhibited together for the first time, Spotify presents Blur 21: The Exhibition, is an extraordinary collection of over 70 images of Blur from legendary music photographers, designers and artists including Pennie Smith, Kevin Cummins, Paul Postle, Tom Sheehan, Banksy and Julian Opie, celebrating the band’s 21 year career.
21 years after the release of their debut album Leisure (1991), Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree will return to the heart of London in an exhibition of rare photographs, artwork and never-before-seen images of this great British band.
Presented by Spotify and EMI Music, the retrospective celebrates Blur’s era defining music, documenting their career as one of the most successful and influential bands of the past two decades, through the lens of legendary and iconic music photographers Pennie Smith, Kevin Cummins, Tom Sheehan and Paul Postle, among others. Previously unseen artwork will also be on display.
Spotify presents Blur 21: The Exhibition documents the band’s story from the early days as Seymour through the 1990s and the height of Britpop, the performance at Alexandra Palace in 1994, seven chart topping studio albums, and eleven top 10 singles, including Country House, Song 2 and Beetlebum, to a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. Bringing us right up to 2012 – a year that has seen Blur awarded the BRIT for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the release of two new songs – Under The Westway and The Puritan – ahead of a sold out show at London’s Hyde Park on 12th August, before the upcoming release of career spanning Blur 21: The Box on 30th July.
Echoing a gritty ’90s vibe, Spotify presents Blur 21: The Exhibition is located in East London contemporary art space Londonewcastle. Curated by leading expert on music photography Dave Brolan, all the key moments of the band’s career are illustrated – on the road, live on stage, in the studio, as well as formal portrait sessions.
Curator Dave Brolan comments
“Blur have always collaborated with the best photographers, artists and graphic designers to create a powerful visual identity that perfectly reflects their music and ideas. This exhibition brings together photography and design produced over the last 21 years from the sketched seeds of ideas for a logo to the most recent portrait session, featuring original work from many artists including Simon Fowler, Paul Postle, Stylorouge, Banksy, Paul Spencer, Tom Sheehan, Julian Opie and Pennie Smith”
Blur 21: The Box will be released on 30th July 2012 on Parlophone. Twenty one years since the release of their debut album Leisure in 1991, the band’s body of work has been compiled and gathered together into one box. Blur’s seven studio albums are collected with over 5 1?2 hours of previously unreleased material including 65 tracks, rarities, 3 DVDs, a collector’s edition book and special limited edition Seymour 7 inch vinyl.
