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Miles Davis: The Collected Artwork
One of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, Miles Davis was a man of many talents. Around 1980, he turned to sketching and painting to, as he explained, keep his �mind occupied with something when [he was] not playing music.” This hobby quickly turned into a serious passion, and Davis approached it with the same obsessive creativity he applied to music. The result is an impressive archive of unique and evocative visual work showcasing the varied skill of this legendary artist.
Throughout the 1980s, Davis studied regularly with New York painter Jo Gelbard, developing a distinct graphic style. Incorporating bright colors and geometric shapes, his art is reminiscent of work by Pablo Picasso as well as African tribal art, the historical influences he cited during occasional interviews on the subject. Author Scott Gutterman sat down with Miles Davis himself before he died in 1991 and the artist’s own commentary accompanies this remarkable showcase of his work.
Sadly, very few of his pieces were exhibited during Miles Davis’s lifetime. Over the last two decades, the Estate of Miles Davis has worked with gallery owners and private parties to assemble a comprehensive collection of the musician’s artwork. Many celebrities are among the most adamant collectors, including Quincy Jones, who offers a foreword to the book. This long-overdue celebration is a treasure for art lovers as well as music aficionados who will appreciate the window into the life of this creative genius.
Throughout the 1980s, Davis studied regularly with New York painter Jo Gelbard, developing a distinct graphic style. Incorporating bright colors and geometric shapes, his art is reminiscent of work by Pablo Picasso as well as African tribal art, the historical influences he cited during occasional interviews on the subject. Author Scott Gutterman sat down with Miles Davis himself before he died in 1991 and the artist’s own commentary accompanies this remarkable showcase of his work.
Sadly, very few of his pieces were exhibited during Miles Davis’s lifetime. Over the last two decades, the Estate of Miles Davis has worked with gallery owners and private parties to assemble a comprehensive collection of the musician’s artwork. Many celebrities are among the most adamant collectors, including Quincy Jones, who offers a foreword to the book. This long-overdue celebration is a treasure for art lovers as well as music aficionados who will appreciate the window into the life of this creative genius.
- GenresArtMusicNonfiction
204 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2013
2 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
Miles Davis
253 books115 followersWith warm, muted style on albums, such as
Kind of Blue
(1959), noted American trumpeter Miles Dewey Davis, Junior, later experimented with jazz-fusion.
Recordings of Armando Anthony Corea with group of Davis from 1968 to 1970 contributed to the development of jazz-fusion.
Miles Dewey Davis III led a band and composed.
From World War II, people widely considered Davis at the forefront of almost every major development as the most influential musicians of the 20th century, to the 1990s. He played various early bebop and one of the first cool records. He partially responsibly developed modal, and his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s arose.
Davis belongs to the great tradition that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, and Dizzy Gillespie, although people never considered his high level of technical ability unlike those of those musicians. His greatest achievement, however, moved beyond regard as a distinctive influence on his own instrument and shaped whole ways through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th century made their names.
The hall of fame for rock and roll posthumously inducted Davis on 13 March 2006. The walk of fame of Saint Louis and the halls for big band and jazz and downbeat jazz also inducted him.
Recordings of Armando Anthony Corea with group of Davis from 1968 to 1970 contributed to the development of jazz-fusion.
Miles Dewey Davis III led a band and composed.
From World War II, people widely considered Davis at the forefront of almost every major development as the most influential musicians of the 20th century, to the 1990s. He played various early bebop and one of the first cool records. He partially responsibly developed modal, and his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s arose.
Davis belongs to the great tradition that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, and Dizzy Gillespie, although people never considered his high level of technical ability unlike those of those musicians. His greatest achievement, however, moved beyond regard as a distinctive influence on his own instrument and shaped whole ways through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th century made their names.
The hall of fame for rock and roll posthumously inducted Davis on 13 March 2006. The walk of fame of Saint Louis and the halls for big band and jazz and downbeat jazz also inducted him.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 19, 2016
I'd love to have a print or two of his work. He was a very talented person1
June 10, 2018
First you learn to draw. Then you learn to paint. Miles never learned to draw.
August 10, 2025
I love that there is a beginning before the beginning.
Chaotic
The “mostly, I work at night…” quote grabbed me.
152,179, 194
Chaotic
The “mostly, I work at night…” quote grabbed me.
152,179, 194
May 19, 2014
The creativity of Miles Davis extended beyond music into a variety of other fields, among them visual art. Most of the artwork in this book was produced in the last decade of his life, and presented as gifts to friends, family, and colleagues.
His drawings tended to be of buxom, naked black women, faces (often in profile), and fantastic, alien creatures. His paintings included some of these elements, but also showed the influence of Kandinsky, Miró, Basquiat, and African art.
His drawings tended to be of buxom, naked black women, faces (often in profile), and fantastic, alien creatures. His paintings included some of these elements, but also showed the influence of Kandinsky, Miró, Basquiat, and African art.
June 12, 2014
Gorgeous and well-organized. A must-have for any serious Miles Davis fan. I would also recommend that you read this while listening to Bitches Brew, and reflecting upon the connections between Miles' music and art.
February 5, 2014
Wonderful
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews