Art at 33 RPM at Spazio Musa in Turin

Spazio Musa in Turin hosts the exhibition Art at 33 RPM from Matisse to Basquiat from Dubuffet to Beuys dedicated to author vinyl from April 15 to September 11, 2022.

Spazio Musa, where art finds its place

It is a space for the arts in all its forms, located in the heart of the historic center.

Spazio Musa, after a long restoration lasting two years, now dedicates its spaces to exhibitions of various kinds, from photographic displays to those focused on contemporary sculpture.

Art at 33 RPM: when vinyl became works of art

The vinyls, at the beginning of their production, were conceived only as anonymous containers, but they evolved to become works of art: Art at 33 RPM presents the original results obtained from the union of art and music.

From Matisse to Basquiat to Dubuffet and Beuys, the entire history of music and modern and contemporary art is narrated through some of its greatest protagonists.

There are indeed 150 artist covers on display that include sculptures, paintings, drawings, graphics, and documents. The artists involved range from Toulouse-Lautrec, through Dalì and Saville, Magritte, Schanbel, to contemporary figures like Ai Wei Wei and Jeff Koons or Annie Leibovitz. 

The latter have also been responsible, among other things, for notable collaborations with internationally renowned musicians, respectively with Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen. 

Andy Warhol and the Art Covers

An honorable mention goes to Andy Warhol who, in 1967, created the iconic banana graphic for the cover of an album by the Velvet Underground.

This sparked the trend of Art Covers, that is, album covers, and later also for films and books, created specifically by an artist or depicting an already existing work borrowed. From this moment on, the paths of music and art, especially in the fields of graphics and design, intertwined leading to incredible results.

Returning to Warhol, Art at 33 RPM showcases all the works created starting from the 1940s with the first experiments in the field.

Art at 33 RPM and the encounters between art and music

The exhibition, enriched by texts from authoritative voices in the Italian artistic and musical scene such as Alessandra Mammì, Sergio Secondiano Sacchi, and Red Ronnie, describes the fruits obtained from the meetings of different artists, such as that between Mario Schifano and Andy Warhol, respectively interpreters of European Pop Art and American Pop Art.

The two met in New York, where Warhol, noticing the similarity of the Italian artist’s works with his own, invited him to frequent the Factory, his studio in Manhattan. Here, Schifano would meet, among others, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jim Dine, who played a decisive role in his subsequent artistic research.

Moreover, the exhibition path also delves into the outcomes achieved in the art-music realm by national and international interpreters such as Mimmo Paladino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ugo Nespolo, Enzo Cucchi, Sol Lewitt, Joseph Beuys or the already mentioned Robert Rauschenberg who created the composable cover of the album “Speaking in Tongues” by the Talking Heads. 

From Spazio Musa to the city

Art at 33 RPM starts from Spazio Musa, but involves the whole city of Turin through the organization of collateral events such as meetings with musicians, artists, critics, and also concerts and evenings dedicated to the discography on display. The initiatives will take place in various cultural spaces throughout the city. 

All that’s left is to go.