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Mati Klarwein, surrealist painter
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Matthew Kruk
Mar 9, 2002, 12:56:53 AM3/9/02
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MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Mati Klarwein, the surrealist painter who designed
psychedelic album covers for rock bands and jazz musicians including Santana,
Miles Davis and Earth, Wind and Fire, has died. He was 70.
Klarwein died Wednesday night in his home in Deia, an artists' colony on
the Spanish island of Mallorca, the municipality said Friday without giving the
cause of death.
Klarwein was born in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up in Israel after his
parents fled the Nazis in 1934.
While studying art in Paris in the late 1940s, he took an interest in
jazz music and was captivated by the eerie surrealism of Salvador Dali.
He later met Dali in the 1970s, when Klarwein's studio in New York drew
visits from the Spanish Catalonian artist and prominent personalities such as
Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Timothy Leary and others.
Klarwein's trademark was magical scenes with an erotic blaze of rich,
deep colors and African and countercultural symbols.
One of Klarwein's most famous album covers was Santana's "Abraxas,"
which showed his 1963 painting "The Annunciation," the biblical story in which
the archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to Jesus.
Santana said he liked the work because "music and color are food for the
soul."
In "The Annunciation," Klarwein based the nude black Virgin Mary on a
girlfriend from Guadeloupe and painted himself as Joseph, wearing a straw hat. A
winged, crimson Gabriel flies down from heaven on a conga drum.
"Drums were always used to announce something," Klarwein said. "They
were a medium of communication in Africa."
Klarwein also painted album covers for Davis' "Bitches Brew" and "Live
Evil" and Buddy Miles' "Hell and Back" and did illustrations for Hendrix, Jerry
Garcia and Earth, Wind and Fire.
Klarwein denied several years ago that taking drugs had provided him
with artistic inspiration.
"I painted psychedelically before I took psychedelics," he said.
No information was available on survivors.
Klarwein will be cremated Saturday, according to officials quoted by the
Spanish news agency Efe.
psychedelic album covers for rock bands and jazz musicians including Santana,
Miles Davis and Earth, Wind and Fire, has died. He was 70.
Klarwein died Wednesday night in his home in Deia, an artists' colony on
the Spanish island of Mallorca, the municipality said Friday without giving the
cause of death.
Klarwein was born in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up in Israel after his
parents fled the Nazis in 1934.
While studying art in Paris in the late 1940s, he took an interest in
jazz music and was captivated by the eerie surrealism of Salvador Dali.
He later met Dali in the 1970s, when Klarwein's studio in New York drew
visits from the Spanish Catalonian artist and prominent personalities such as
Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Timothy Leary and others.
Klarwein's trademark was magical scenes with an erotic blaze of rich,
deep colors and African and countercultural symbols.
One of Klarwein's most famous album covers was Santana's "Abraxas,"
which showed his 1963 painting "The Annunciation," the biblical story in which
the archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to Jesus.
Santana said he liked the work because "music and color are food for the
soul."
In "The Annunciation," Klarwein based the nude black Virgin Mary on a
girlfriend from Guadeloupe and painted himself as Joseph, wearing a straw hat. A
winged, crimson Gabriel flies down from heaven on a conga drum.
"Drums were always used to announce something," Klarwein said. "They
were a medium of communication in Africa."
Klarwein also painted album covers for Davis' "Bitches Brew" and "Live
Evil" and Buddy Miles' "Hell and Back" and did illustrations for Hendrix, Jerry
Garcia and Earth, Wind and Fire.
Klarwein denied several years ago that taking drugs had provided him
with artistic inspiration.
"I painted psychedelically before I took psychedelics," he said.
No information was available on survivors.
Klarwein will be cremated Saturday, according to officials quoted by the
Spanish news agency Efe.
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