The Color of Rock

The Color of Rock: The Art of Philip Burke

November 14, 2006 – April 15, 2007

On November 14, 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened The Color of Rock: The Art of Philip Burke. The exhibit, located on the Museum’s 6th floor, features 33 portraits of musicians by the famed painter Philip Burke. The exhibit will be open through April 15, 2007.

You may not know Burke by name, but you probably know his art. Philip Burke’s unique and vivid portraits of celebrities from politics, business, sports and the arts have been featured in more than 200 magazines and newspapers, including Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, and Vogue. Many of his subjects over the past 25 years have been rock stars and Burke was the featured artist at Rolling Stone for seven years. “When I was a teen in Buffalo, I wanted to be a rock star, but I couldn’t play any instruments and I was too shy to sing. So, I put my dream into painting and drawing rock stars,” Burke says. The exhibit includes paintings of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Annie Lennox, Bonnie Raitt, Korn, Ramones, Bono, Little Richards and Prince among others. Burke’s painting of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler is part of Gap’s 2006 fall advertising campaign.