Storm Thorgerson RIP
Tributes have been paid to Pink Floyd album artist Storm Thorgerson who has died aged 69.
His family released a statement saying he died peacefully on Thursday surrounded by family and friends. “He had been ill for some time with cancer though he had made a remarkable recovery from his stroke in 2003,” it said.
In a career spanning six-decades of music, Thorgerson was perhaps best known for his work with prog-rockers Pink Floyd. Drummer Nick Mason is among the artists who have praised the designer. In a statement, he recalled his “great ideas and high, sometimes infuriatingly high, standards” .
Mason said the artist – whose work included The Dark Side of the Moon – was a “tireless worker right up to the end” . “Two days before he passed away, and by then completely exhausted, he was still demanding approval for artwork and haranguing his loyal assistants.”
Guitarist/vocalist Dave Gilmour called him “an inseparable part of our work” .
Thorgerson’s knack for blending the banal with the disturbing created some truly memorable artwork, which often left the viewer uneasy. Always visually striking, Thorgerson designed more than ten albums for the band, as well as boxed sets and reissues Among his Pink Floyd covers, there was the mournful-looking cow on the front of Atom Heart Mother , the burning businessman on the sleeve of Wish You Were Here , the giant pig flying over Battersea Power Station and the prism spreading a spectrum of colour across The Dark Side Of The Moon .
Personally I am also deeply saddened by this loss. Although many of the performers Thorgerson favoured were a little ‘before my time’ the sheer visual impact of his cover art is impossible to forget. He created the stunning cover art for “band of the nineties” Catherine Wheel’s Chrome and many of the bands other releases including [sic] Classic Album pick, Adam And Eve .
Just Google image search on Storm Thorgerson Album Art and gasp at the many iconic prints which pop up. Thorgersons distinctive style, his consistency, and of course his work with Catherine Wheel made him one of my favourite album graphic artists of all time. I will put him in a holy trinity alongside Vaughan Oliver and Peter Saville for the most impact and meaning on my music loving life.
A loss to art and a loss to music.