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Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944) is a contemporary artist best known for his work on album covers, which began in the early 1970s. He was born in England, but spent most of his childhood moving around the world with his British Army father. The family returned to England in 1959 and Dean earned a National Diploma of Design from the Canterbury School of Art. In 1968, he graduated from the Royal College of Art in London.
His first album cover work was for a group called Gun. In 1971, Dean produced the first album cover for the African group Osibisa, which attracted a lot of attention to his work. Later that year, he began the partnership for which he is best known, designing his first album cover (Fragile) for the progressive rock band Yes. Dean designed the classic Yes logo, which first appeared on the album Close to the Edge and has created covers for the band as recently as 1999 (The Ladder). Yes guitarist Steve Howe said, "There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger's art."
Known primarily for the dreamy, other-worldly scenes he has created for Yes, Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant and other bands, Dean has said, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape painter." Many of his paintings use multiple mediums like gouache, watercolor, ink, enamel, crayon and montage.
Two compilations of his work, Views (1978) and Magnetic Storm (1986), have been published. In addition, his architectural and furniture work has been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Royal Academy. In recent years, he has focused a great deal on his architectural ideas, finally building a number of homes he has designed over the years.
In early 2005, Dean has announced plans to create a feature film titled Floating Islands. This film will be produced by Roger Dean and David Mousley. The story is based on the underlying theme depicted in the album artwork for Yes. It will feature 3D animated renderings of classic Dean images and music by Yes.
Dean has lived in Brighton since 1972.
Selected list of works
Selected list of album covers
Gun
Earth & Fire
Nucleus
Keith Tippett Group
Ramases
- 1972 Squawk
- 1973 Never Turn Your Back on a Friend
- 1996 An Ecstasy of Fumbling: The Definitive Anthology
- 1972 Demons and Wizards
- 1972 The Magicians Birthday
- 1995 Sea of Light
- 2001 Acoustically Driven
- 2001 Remasters
Badger
Greenslade
- 1973 Greenslade
- 1973 Bedside Manners Are Extra
Dave Greenslade
- 1975 Beginnings
- 1979 The Steve Howe Album
- 1991 Turbulence
- 1994 Not Necessarily Acoustic
- 2003 Elements
John Lodge
Barry Devlin
- 1993 Rick Wakemans Greatest Hits
- 1999 Return to the Center of the Earth
Space Needle
- 1997 Moray Eels Eat the Space Needle
The London Symphony Orchestra
- 1997 Symphonic Rock: American Classics
- 1997 Symphonic Rock: The British Invasion, Vol. 1
- 1998 Symphonic Rock: The British Invasion, Vol. 2
Ad Infintum
Vermilion
- 2002 Flattening Mountains and Creating Empires
- 2003 The Iridium Controversy
Miscellaneous
- 1993 Symphonic Music of Yes
- 1995 Tales from Yesterday
- 1995 Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd
- 1996 Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era
- 1998 Yes Friends and Relatives
- 2000 Yes, Friends and Relatives Volume 2
References
External Links
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