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  2. Guide To Kurt Cobain's Art
  3. Mixed Media & Altered Art

LIVE NIRVANA GUIDE TO KURT COBAIN'S ART Mixed Media & Altered Art

Paintings Drawings Photography Mixed Media Film Sound Collages Spoken Word Updates Contact
Warning about counterfeit material: There is an increasing amount of fake NIRVANA memorabilia on the market — including fake Cobain artwork — collectors are advised to exercise caution when presented with such items and to always independently research and verify the claimed provenance before investing any monies.

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  1. White Virgin Mary "Our Lady of Grace" statue, decorated with black and red paint.
  2. Cracked porcelain doll head, redecorated with blue and white paint.
  3. Broken porcelain doll head/face, redecorated with black paint.
  4. Ink on photo paper. Cobain has defaced a photograph of himself (originally taken by Tracy Marander), uglifying his face, adding a syringe by his side and the word "NIRVANA" above his head. Featured in Nick Broomfield's Kurt & Courtney documentary film.
  5. An assemblage of magazine cutouts, anatomical models and toy figures.
  6. Chim Chim toy figure set against a collage of medical magazine cutouts (diseased vaginas). Used for the inlay of the Nevermind release.
  7. Mixed media on board. Features a dismembered figurine, a photograph of a toilet, an illustration of a bridge across a waterfall, yellow, red, green and beige paint trails, blue glitter, and a large hole in the center.
  8. Art dolls. Featured in Nick Broomfield's Kurt & Courtney documentary film.
  9. Ink-on-card caricature of a Bleach-era NIRVANA. Cobain has humorously defaced the Bleach album cover, depicting himself with a mohawk, Krist Novoselic as bald, and Jason Everman as a stony-faced heavy metal rocker.
  10. Defaced Nevermind album cover. Cobain has dressed the underwater baby with lipstick, bra and flippers in pink ink. The wand and hair embellishments in yellow ink having presumably been added by Krist Novoselic.
  11. Self-portrait composed of a NIRVANA comic book tearout and a pencil drawn, emaciated body; Six lines from Alicia Ostriker's poem, "A Young Woman, a Tree" are pasted above the portrait. Published in Journals.
  12. Art doll, Xeroxed by Kevin Kerslake. Used for the front cover of Sonic Youth's Whores Moaning EP.
  13. Art doll sculpture made from wire, clay and paint.
  14. Porcelain doll head, redecorated with white and pink paint. Published in Cobain Unseen.
  15. Skeleton with white modelling clay applied to its face.
  16. Skull with a ruptured frontal bone and exposed brain. The skull has been fleshed-out on one side with yellow modelling clay.
  17. Skeleton, embellished with paint and yellow modelling clay.
  18. A whittled and painted artist's wooden mannequin, adorned with a collar and chain. Used for the front cover of the Lithium single.
  19. A whittled and painted artist's wooden mannequin with a missing right hand. Published in Cobain Unseen.
  20. Ink on painted canvas. Cobain has written the words "Frances Farmer will come back as fire to burn all the liars and leave a blanket of ash on the ground" across the top of a painting of a mountainous landscape (post-eruption Mount St. Helens?), the painting's original artist is unknown. Published in Cobain Unseen.
  21. Ink on photo paper. Cobain has defaced a photograph of baby Frances Bean Cobain, adding a lit cigarette to her mouth, a beer can at her side and the words "Shut Up Bitch" across her romper suit. Published in Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love.
  22. ‘Personalized’ Hallmark card, titled "The Many Moods Of Kurdt Kobain." Published in Journals.
  23. An assemblage of Stargazer lilies and anatomical models, photographed by Charles Peterson. Used for the reverse cover of the In Utero album.
  24. Madonna statue fragments with three birth announcement dolls, arranged in a suitcase. Published in Cobain Unseen.
  25. Defaced Manischewitz matzo ball mix box. Published in the In Utero deluxe edition album liner.
  26. Painting of a large flower against a green-ish background; feathers have been applied to the canvas as flower petals; cut-outs of the In Utero angel, Versalius's Eve and several of Cobain's own alien-like figures have also been applied on and around the flower; a smiley face and ‘Come As You ARE’ are written in yellow.