Though chill winds and construction on Penn Avenue conspired to keep the opening night crowd down, the Nov. 7 opening of the “Album Art of Mozelle Thompson LP Cover Illustrations 1953-1969” retrospective at the Most Wanted Fine Art gallery in Garfield was packed. And it was packed again for the official opening the following day. Not only did the crowds have fun, they were impressed with both the artwork, and with curator Jason Molyneaux, aka DJ Jay Malls, for collecting so much of it.
“This is the newest addition,” Malls said, pointing to a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus poster mounted high on the gallery wall. “It arrived this morning. It’s from 1963 in Los Angeles. And I know he did poster for Pittsburgh and New York City in other years. So now I’m thinking, there’s this whole other art work he did. There could be thousands of these things. How many were just thrown away or lost?”
Molyneaux managed to display more than 100 examples of Thompson’s work, including—like the circus poster—some unexpected gems such as the cover for a paperback edition of Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange.”
“Wow, that’s a totally different take from any others I’ve seen,” said filmmaker Billy Jackson looking at the image that features a Black man seated on a motorcycle wearing shades and a black leather jacket and cap in front of two other men and a woman.
In that same bookcase is a volume featuring his illustrations for the lyrics to “Lift Evr’y Voice and Sing,” a children’s book called “The Pumpkin Seed,” he illustrated, and the hard cover dust jacket he painted for Ernest Tidyman’s “Shaft.”
Thompson, 1928-1970, painted sleeve art for a wide variety of musical genres, mostly for the RCA label. Molyneaux has nearly all of them, from the musicals “Purlie” and “Porgy and Bess,” jazz collections by Cootie Williams, Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway to early Country and Western artists Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams, guitar legend Lightin’ Hopkins, International Folk Dance collections and spirituals sung by the Howard University Choir.
But even here is the unexpected: Thompson’s cover painting for a dialog and incidental music recording of the UK version of the 1959 movie “Jack the Ripper,” with narration by Cedric Hardwicke.
Thompson’s sister Greta Griffin, who attended both the evening opening and the official Nov. 8 opening, which featured Roger Barbour and members of his original Basic Sounds of Pittsburgh band as well as mimosas courtesy of the Allegheny Wine Mixer, said she and the rest of the family who were able to attend were very happy with the result.
“It is great, wonderful,” she said. “I am so pleased. And the crowd—it was jam packed. They just kept coming. We were getting ready to leave and they were still coming.”
Griffin said family came Maryland, New York, Michigan, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. She said it was kind of like coming full circle to have the show in Garfield because some of he brother’s first shows, attended by people like Mayor David L. Lawrence, were at Fort Pitt School.
She was also impressed by the crowd’s diversity.
“There were folks of all races and ages there, kids were dancing. And I was especially glad to see a lot of students who were really excited about the show, admiring the work,” she said. “I think this might grow into something more.”
The Thompson exhibit continues at Most Wanted Fine Art, 5015 Penn Ave. on Nov. 23 and 30 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Download our mobile app at https://www.appshopper.com/news/new-pittsburgh-courier
About Post Author
