By
no means complete, this gallery represents only a select portion
of Amsel's remarkable work, including several unused designs that have, to my knowledge,
only been featured within rare auction catalogs. (I'd
greatly welcome any new contributions people could provide!) Credit is footnoted for all known sources.
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Eddy
Arnold: I Love How You Love Me
1971? (TBC)
Size and medium unknown.
One of Amsel's album covers for RCA. (I found this by chance
in a second hand store in Ventura, California, and had a
friend take a picture of it with his camera phone!) |
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This
is Helen O'Connell
1972 12" vinyl double album cover for RCA Victor Records.
Acrylic & airbrush. Size unknown.
Images courtesy of Scot Ryersson (left/front) & Tony
Hill (right/full). |
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This
is Maurice Chevalier
1972 12" vinyl double album cover for RCA Victor Records.
Acrylic & airbrush. Size unknown. |
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This
is Bennie Goodman
1972 12" vinyl double album cover for RCA Victor Records.
Acrylic & airbrush. Size unknown. |
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Body and Soul: Five Decades of Jazz Era Song
Date unknown - early 1970's.
Vinyl trible album cover for Columbia Records.
Pencil and mixed media. Size unknown.
Special thanks to Jeff Crawford for this image.
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Tommy (inner artwork of Pete Townsend as the narrator)
1972
Vinyl LP album cover for Ode Records with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir.
Size and medium unknown.
Amsel was one of several illustrators who contributed to this album. It won a Grammy for Best Album Package.
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The
Divine Miss M (2)
1972
Acrylic and colored pencils on board
15 x 14 1/2 in.
One of Amsel's most famous and popular pieces.
One of the challenges I've had with this site is trying to find sharp, high quality images that best represent Amsel's work. Many of the images here were either scans I made myself, or culled from images online...but when I don't have the original art available for comparison, there's a wide margin of error in how the colors are represented.
Take, for example, these two images of THE DIVINE MISS M album cover illustration. At top is a high rez pic I scanned from a catalog; beneath a smaller pic of the album itself found online. Both the artist and (especially) his subject would likely scream upon finding that a red-headed diva's locks have suddenly turned a pale, sickly dark brown! So, for completion's sake, I opted to feature both images here. This is yet another reason why I always welcome your contributions to this site. |
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Bette
Midler (2)
1973
Acrylic and ink on board
30 x 23 1/2 in. |
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Bette
Midler
1973
Final printed poster. |
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Bette
Midler -- Clams on the Half Shell (6)
1975
Original concept sketch for album cover. |
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Bette
Midler -- Clams on the Half Shell (12)
1975
A beautiful, detailed pencil study for album cover. |
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Bette
Midler -- Clams on the Half Shell (2)
1975
Oil on canvas
29 7/8 x 30 in.
Dorian Hannaway kindly showed me the original painting,
which hangs in her home. It was one of the few pieces Amsel
painted in oils, and was apparently still drying when it
was handed over for photographing. |
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Bette
Midler -- Songs for the New Depression
(6)
1976
Text from the original printed album has been digitally
removed. Image courtesy of Darrell
at Bette On the
Boards. Used by permission. |
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Kenny
Rogers: Love Will Turn You Around
1982
Acrylic, watercolor, pastels and pencils on board
14 x 14 in.
The enduring charm of Amsel's work is that while he was
quite capable of drawing faces with photorealistic accuracy,
he also gave them a more personal, illustrative quality.
This portrait of Kenny Rogers is a good example. |
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The
Mozart Collection
1984
Likely acrylic, watercolor, pastels and pencils on board
Size unknown.
I
came across this album cover art on Amazon almost by chance,
but vaguely remember seeing it on prominent display in music
stores back when I was a child. Amsel did the cover art
for Time Life Music's THE MOZART COLLECTION, released in
1984 -- no doubt fueled by the enormous success of the film
AMADEUS at the time. To my knowledge, this is Amsel's last
known album cover. |
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