Serge Gainsbourg considered popular music as a minor art compared to painting and sculpture. While record covers are true products of the pop culture, they sometimes borrowed to the fine arts. Numerous examples of sleeves are obvious imitations or reproductions of famous works of art, denoting either a genuine devotion or a deliberate attempt to gain artistic credit (or both). In return, some contemporary figures in the visual arts fairly understood the benefit in contributing, directly or not, to popular music, and thus reaching a much larger audience. How many rock fans discovered Andy Warhol with the famous Velvet Underground banana ? This website is about record covers and arts.

Music Artwork has been featured in an article entitled "50 Resources for Students Attending Online Liberal Arts Schools".
http://www.onlineschools.org/online-liberal-arts-schools/

Michelangelo's creation of Adam












Michelangelo

The Creation of Adam (detail) (1508-12)

Prince

Lovesexy (1988)


Kubrick's Shining












Stanley Kubrick

Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980)

Mr. Bungle

Goddammit, I Love America ! (EP) (1988)











Stanley Kubrick

Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980)

Redd Kross & Melvins

New Year's Eve Ballroom Blitz (EP) (2012)


Basquiat's hip hop artwork












Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled Oil Drawing on Paper (unknown)

Rammellzee vs. K-Rob

Beat Bop (single) (1983)


Gautier Dagoty's Marie-Antoinette












Jean-Baptiste Gautier-Dagoty

Marie-Antoinette en grand habit de cour (1775)

Pi Corp

Let Them Eat Pi (Musik Spontano Electrik) (2010)


Schiele's autoportrait in red shirt












Egon Schiele

Selbstdarstellung mit rotem Hemd (1913)

Erik Friedlander's Chimera

The Watchman (1996)


Dali's soft watches












Salvador Dali

La Persistence de la Mémoire (1931)

Various

Rubber Folk: a Folk Tribute to the Beatles (2006)


Kapoor's mother as mountain












Anish Kapoor

Mother as Mountain (1985)

Vijay Iyer Trio

Accelerando (2012)


Pre-Raphaelite lying portrait













Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Couch (1870)

Henry Treffry Dunn

Jane Morris (1896-98)








David Bowie

The Man Who Sold the World (1971)


Filips' cityscape












Filips

Blues by Night (1987)

The Needles

Need some Action (1988)


Logoreci's urban landscape












Susan Logoreci

Silverlake Revisited (2004)

Lloyd Cole

Antidepressant (2006)


Böcklin's Pan and the blackbird












Arnold Böcklin

Pan Whistling at a Blackbird (1863)

Aurélien Merle

Remerle (2015)


Newton's walking models












Helmut Newton

Here They Come II (from the Big Nudes series) (1981)

Scorpions

Love at First Sting (US) (1984)


Lichtenstein's fighter plane firing a rocket










Roy Lichtenstein

Whaam ! (1963)












The Weathermen

Bang Bang ! (1989)

Various

Powerdance ! (back cover) (1990)

UK Subs

Yellow Leader (2015)










Various

Powerdance ! (1990)

Various

Burning Sounds: 20 Killer Power Pop Cuts (2007)


Picasso's three musicians (2)












Pablo Picasso

Nous Autres Musiciens (1921)

Daddy Longlegs

The Three Musicians (1972)


Doré's Illustration to Tennyson's Idylls of the King












Gustave Doré

Merlin l'Enchanteur et la Fée Viviane (1868)

Burzum

The Ways of Yore (2014)


Wood's farm couple












Grant Wood

American Gothic (1930)

Dissension

We the Fooled

(1988)













Chuck Palahniuk

Expedition (2015)

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

The Monsanto Years (2015)

Various

Better Off Zed (Soundtrack) (2018)


Magritte's memoirs of a saint












René Magritte

Les Mémoires d'un Saint (1960)

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Visions (1983)


Cocteau's Orphée










Jean Cocteau

Jean Marais in Orphée (1949)













The Smiths

This Charming Man (1983)

Cyndi Lauper

True Colors (1986)

Klimek

Music to Fall Asleep (2006)


Tresham's triangular lodge












Sir Thomas Tresham

Rushton Triangular Lodge (1593-97)

Temples

Sun Structures (2014)