The cover for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2002 album
By the Way features a painting by Julian Schnabel of then-guitarist John Frusciante's then-girlfriend Stella, Schnabel’s daughter. He noted (as though Schnabel was somehow obscure): "My girlfriend's father offered to do the album art, so we sent him rough mixes of eight songs, and he just got the vibe of the album from that. He said that he wouldn't be offended if we didn't like it, but we loved what he did. He's a true artist."
Schnabel also created the cover for the single
Can't Stop, but it's the song's video that is noteworthy. Directed by Mark Romanek (
Hurt by Johnny Cash,
99 Problems by Jay-Z,
Devil's Haircut by Beck) the clip takes its inspiration from the
One Minute Sculptures of Erwin Wurm, whose work Romanek spotted in a book a few years prior.
Singer Anthony Kiedis said "The first time I had seen Wurm's work was on a fuzzy, hard-to-decipher fax sent to me from Mark, but they looked magical and graphically potent. They were all fun to act out [and] presented an opportunity to be a sneaky sculpture spy art nerd."
"I liked having the markers and things stuck in my face," said bassist Flea, "I felt like I was doing something good, like I was earning a living — good, blue-collar work."
Wurm, who had not met the band or been involved, said "..they used my sculptures like a kid's game. They made it more childish - it's great."
The video can be seen
here.
Erwin Wurm
One Minute Sculptures 1988-1998 is a 296 page book of Wurm's drawings, edited by Kunsthaus Bregenz and Edelbert Köb with texts by Jérôme Sans. Released in 1999, the title is now out of print and is listed on Amazon at a variety of unrealistic prices.
