ROLLING STONES But Naked

This is one incredible and unique collection of unreleased artwork for preliminary design concepts of the sleeve artwork for a 1995 album titled Rolling Stones But Naked – this title was later changed and the album released as Stripped. The artwork boards vary in size and each shows a different visual concept for the ‘finished’ cover. Viewing these some 20 years after their creation it’s incredible that they were rejected at all. There are 15 boards with depictions ranging from Album Visual, CD Album Visual, Box For CD (Slip Case), Box For CD with Snake Skin Texture + Belly Band, etc; a further 5 presentation boards each displaying a different pair of 3-D artwork visuals; 4 more separate colour prints each with 2 design concepts; a black plastic folder titled ROLLING STONES, “BUT NAKED” PRESENTATION displaying 8 further concepts – these are individually titled and include Underwear cover, Cigaratte (sic) cover, Bondage cover 1, Kertez cover, Cigaratte cover 2, Bondage cover 2, Leventhal Doll cover, and Rheims Bedroom cover. Finally, a quantity of 35 sheets of A3 paper designs in colour and black & white; these are hand annotated concepts depicting ‘Images as reaction to the title’, ‘Tour Pass ideas’, ‘X-ray idea’, ‘Richard Misrach images’, ‘Helmut Newton images’, ‘Naked packaging’,’ Fluxus blind image’, ‘Images using live photos’ and ‘Basquiat paintings’. In total there are over 40 different unreleased artwork designs for the But Naked cover, with the additional paper items providing an interesting insight into the concepts and thought process that inform an album cover project such as this. Truly a one-off stunning collection that could simply never be repeated.

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