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I took the colored shadows as Leonard's nod or tribute to Kezban, as she has done so much for him over the last few years, and probably is again the photog for the PP cover. But was the lightening and moving of the shadows done simply in order to emphasize the Leonard side of the cover or is there more involved?
What got me curious was the product page here
http://leonardcohenforum.com/download/f ... &mode=view . Seeing the t shirt-- does it mean anything that the yellow shadows are further away from the person of Leonard the further back it goes? The nearest (latest?) version of Leonard has a shadow which is right near to him, whereas the further one goes back it gets more off from the Leonard. Does it mean anything or does it just make it look nicer? Did Leonard even have anything whatsoever to do with the design?
One thing which especially struck me was the color bar thing on the upper left of the page. It's clear that the color choices are a symbol of some sort. (and we can't help but think of that symbol as perhaps part of the logo for any upcoming tour)
It reminds of military ribbons, but mostly it struck me as a reference to the work of Piet Mondrian. The colors aren't just the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) but also the primary non-colors (white, black, grey) to which Mondrian limited himself in his later work. I knew at most only the basics of Mondrian so I started looking into him and found some interesting things:
"Mondrian equated art with the spiritual. He simplified his work, searching to reveal the essence of the spiritual energy in the balance of forces that governs nature and the universe."
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"His was a search for a goal that he saw but vaguely at first and then clearly and distinctly; the attainment of that goal, a solution to the problems, artistic and human, confronting him; and thereafter no standstill, no veering in other directions, but a continuation, a constant refinement and ever new achievement of the solution"
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"Piet Mondrian, like Kandinsky, read extensively on spiritual concepts. His endorsement of Theosophy was distinctly acknowledged and he frequently made reference to it in regard to the content of his work. His ideas were first expressed as Symbolist art, then as he began to explore the use of color as a means to project the inner being of an outwardly visible object, his work started to change. His sole objective became the reduction of form to simple contrasts of line and color to signify the unity between opposites: male and female, static and dynamic, spirit and matter. Geometric shapes and primary colors were to become his trademark, representing in simple terms the immensely complex spiritual structuring of the universe."
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In one of his writings of an explanation of his art, he used a formula of a doubting critic, referred to as "A Singer" and himself as "The Painter" which allowed him to use musical analogies to explain his art. See some of this dialogue here:
http://modernistarchitecture.wordpress. ... %E2%80%9D/
(Please note: the term "plastic" essentially means "abstract")
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"The problem of Mondrian is how to understand those marvelous grids, beyond just yielding to their silent unsymmetrical magic. I am not suggesting that we should read them as literal transcriptions of a particular religious doctrine. Mondrian was not embodying a theological program in his abstract paintings. But as he moved year by year with firm steps toward nonobjective art, as subject matter became less and less recognizable until it disappeared altogether, Mondrian was trying to say something. And it is something that purely esthetic categories cannot fully grasp. ''The life of modern cultured man,'' so Mondrian opened his first and most sustained exposition of his convictions, ''The New Plastic in Painting'' (1917), ''is gradually turning away from the natural: life is becoming more and more abstract.'' "
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"...according to Mondrian’s own notebooks, the patterns represent the struggle toward unity of cosmic dualities and the religious symmetry undergirding the material universe."
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Here is a good page going through the evolution of Mondrian's work:
http://www.pietmondrian.info/mondrian-a ... -home.html
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It also struck me that Mondrian had a retrospective exhibition of his entire work in Toronto in 1966.
I'm not saying that Mondrian is definitely the key to the cover of Popular Problems, but I think it bears some looking into. With Mondrian in mind, I can't wait to see some of the lyrics.
