Rendering 2

The article published on the website of the newspaper “New York Times” on February 22, 2013 is headlined “A Plain White Square, and Yet So Fascinating”. This article reports at length about Rutherford Chang’s collection of The Beatles’ “The White Album”. Mr. Chang, an artist, was inspired by this album and decided to collect the whole edition which was limited. Actually, about three million numbered copies were printed in the United States before EMI stopped numbering them in 1970. 

The author of the article, Allan Kozinn, gives readers some information about Mr. Chang.  He is a soft-spoken, 33-year-old artist who was born in Houston and grew up in California. What is interesting, he is sure that though all covers are all-white and have only one difference-that is number, all of them have their own story. He has a special site named “We Buy White Albums,” which is an installation at Recess devoted to this fascination and its artistic ramifications.

What is more, the albums lost their initial view and now some of them are in near-mint condition, others bearing former owners’ names, psychedelic renderings of “The Beatles,” colorful drawings or, in many cases, patterns created by rotting cardboard.

 Analyzing the text, we find out that Mr. Chang has a gallery under the name “The White Album”. There he assorted them according their number. The lowest-numbered copy Mr. Chang has is 13539. The highest is A3129174. Mr. Chang adds that the highest price for the disc was $20.

The author remarks that some anomalies can be found in Mr. Chang’s collection. One cover is embossed “Los Beatles,” and lists the song titles in Spanish. Copy No. A0458104 is a misprint: the inner gatefold is printed upside down. European pressings opened on the top, rather than on the sides, and had black inner sleeves. 

It is important to mention that now the collection consists of 694 copies, a small fraction of the three million numbered sets.

From my point of view, it is wonderful when a person has a hobby especially when other people are interested in it, but I think that this gallery will be attractive only for a true devotee of the Beatles.

Link http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/arts/design/artists-obsession-with-beatles-white-album-on-display.html?src=recg