You can see why Mati Klarwein, hugely influential pillar of the 1960s art scene, "didn't need psychedelics"

Date
15 November 2012

It’s hard to get across just how important this man is in just a few sentences, but it must be done. Mati Klarwein was the man literally responsible for every great, legendary record cover you’ll see — if he didn’t do it, he inspired it. A student of a Jerusalem art school at the age of 15, Mati began incorporating his spiritual beliefs into the images he was creating of the mountainous landscape he felt such affinity with. Brief spells in Paris, Mallorca and St.Tropez cemented his style and he soon became legendary for the trippy, erotic scenes he was able to produce unlike anyone else. Timothy Leary (who loved drugs) once said of Mati that he was one of the only artists at the time who “didn’t need psychedelics.”

Just as free love started to kick off, Mati became the go-to man for record sleeves, portraits and murals, some of which you could probably look at for 100 years and still not get tired of. His ability to capture an entire era in these wild, flowing images (he was friends with Salvador Dali) is something that puts him right up there with Hendrix and John Bonham and the hundreds of others that helped make the 1960s and 70s so immortally iconic.

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Mati Klarwein: Annunciation (1961)

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Mati Klarwein: Sun–Moon (Late 60s)

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Mati Klarwein: Saint John (1962)

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Mati Klarwein: Walking on Water (1961)

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Mati Klarwein: Bavarian Angel (1970)

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Mati Klarwein: Bitches Brew (1970)

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Mati Klarwein: Untitled

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Mati Klarwein: Dat’s Terrible aka. Cablecar

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Mati Klarwein: Chez Sphinx (1973)

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About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

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