Vinyl Fetish: The LP as High Art

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You kids can have your iPods and your iPads and your musical brain implants. Us, we like to spin it old school. And we’re far from alone. Vinyl record sales have been way up in the past few years. In fact, LP fetishism has become so intense that it’s begotten its very own art exhibit. Beginning in September, the Nasher Museum will host a show called The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, featuring contributors from Laurie Anderson and David Byrne to Jasper Johns and Ed Ruscha. Now, we know you’ve seen enough vinyl bowls, cuffs, and purses to last you a lifetime. But it’s high time we considered records as the inspiration for first-rate fine art. After the jump, gawk at a couple of our favorite works from Nasher’s online preview — along with some other gorgeous examples of LP art.

Laurie Anderson, Viophonograph, 1976. Photo by Bob Bielecki. Image from Nasher’s The Record via Coolhunting.

Fatimah Tuggar, Turntable, 1996. Image from Nasher’s The Record via Coolhunting.

Record Store Window, Amsterdam. Buy it at Etsy.

Christian Marclay, 2822 Records (PS1), 1987-2009. Images via P.S. 1.

Elle Moss, Songbird. Buy the photo at Etsy.

Jean Shin, Sound Wave, 2007. Image via The Maas: Media.

Maureen Duncan, Under the Big Black Sun. Oil on vinyl record. Image via Brooklyn Arts Council.

Matt Schwartz, Girl with Records. Image via She Hit Pause Studios. (Here we want to add a little endorsement: We own the photo above and love it. This is great, very affordable art. More images with vinyl records over at She Hit Pause.)