Stanley Donwood: Artwork, Radiohead, and Seeing the Real Picture

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Artist Stanley Donwood has been working with the alt/rock band Radiohead for quite some time. Donwood has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with critically acclaimed Radiohead, and has constructed artwork for the band since 1994.His contribution to Radiohead's artistic identity should not be overlooked.

Kin to Radiohead's music, Donwood's artwork explores contemporary, western life through the lens of a worried outsider, utterly disillusioned by the triumph of post cold war capitalism. Some of his best work, you ask?
"Ok Computer"- landmark 1997 album

Mocking modern office culture/societal values

Woodsy: For the album"Amnesiac. A daydream in the woods turns dark. 
The blood spotted on the snowy landscape honors the victims of the Bosnian genocide of the late 90s

Foreboding violence/ the Bosnian conflict rests behind those mountains

The west looks on-as the rest suffers?
The artwork for the album "Kid A" visually depicted the Bosnian genocide. Here, it is the devil coming to life, human misery and evil lurks over the landscape. 
For the album "Hail to the Thief", Donwood chose to use Los Angeles and crass commercialism to visually map a major western city.
The hidden anxiety created by capitalism. 
the everyday: inundated with advertisements
A lighter, more inspirational theme was selected for 2007's "In Rainbows"
Surreal lights: In Rainbows
2011's "King of Limbs": a woodsy escape
Deep forest enchantment. . .an escape from the city
2016's "A Moon Shaped Pool". . .reflections and cosmic questions
Lead singer Thom Yorke's solo album: "The Eraser". Black and white. . .film noir. . . cloak and dagger. . .the unseen powers that be. . .

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