Grunge Legend Kurt Cobain’s Art Will Hit the Road in New Traveling Exhibition

Nirvana's frontman gets a second act.

Die-hard fans of grunge legend Kurt Cobain are probably well-aware that Nirvana’s explosive frontman was also an imaginative visual artist, conceiving and creating the art for such albums as In Utero and Incesticide. Now, a collection of paintings, collages, and other works produced by the late icon will be hitting the road.

The upcoming exhibition is being organized by Jeff Jampol, who manages a number of musicians’ estates through his company, Jampol Artist Management. With the likes of Janis Joplin and Otis Redding already in his stable, Jampol revealed in an interview with the New York Times that Cobain’s archive is his next big project.

The welcome sign to Aberdeen, Washington, is seen on April 1, 2014 along with the title of a Nirvana song. Nirvana fans prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of the band's frontman Kurt Cobain's suicide on April 5. Courtesy of Michael THURSTON/AFP/Getty Images.

The welcome sign to Aberdeen, Washington, is seen on April 1, 2014 along with the title of a Nirvana song. Courtesy of Michael THURSTON/AFP/Getty Images.

According to Jampol, the traveling exhibition will feature artworks, private possessions, and other items from Cobain’s estate. To prime fans for the show, Jampol told the Times: “He’s got some amazing canvases that a lot of the world has never seen or even heard of.”

Collage by Kurt Cobain. Courtesy of YouTube.

Collage by Kurt Cobain. Courtesy of YouTube.

Jampol has been working on the exhibition with Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, and the couple’s only child, Frances Bean Cobain, who reportedly took control of her father’s estate in 2010. She also was the co-executive producer on the 2015 documentary, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, which features a number of the music legend’s original collages and sketches.

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses Gallery. Courtesy of Christopher Nelson via EMP Museum.

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses Gallery. Courtesy of Christopher Nelson via EMP Museum.

Details about the touring exhibition have yet to be announced, although fans can catch Seattle’s EMP Museum show, “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses,” which is currently on view. As Jampol notes in the Times, Cobain’s artistic legacy is “going to be relevant for centuries.”


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