New exhibition announced celebrating Radiohead’s artwork by Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood
A new exhibition has been announced celebrating the artwork of Radiohead done by Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford have announced the forthcoming exhibition from the Radiohead frontman and the band’s longtime artist Donwood, titled ‘This Is What You Get’. It is slated to open in summer 2025.
“This Is What You Get will be the first exhibition in a public gallery to bring together the visual work of Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke”, the museum wrote on Instagram.
“More than 120 works will be on display, including many of the paintings, drawings and digital art specifically created for Yorke’s internationally acclaimed band Radiohead, formed in Oxford in 1985.
They added that the “multimedia” exhibition will feature “Donwood and Yorke’s unique collaborations that explore the complex relationship between visual art and music”, along with artwork from “1980s to the present day, including Radiohead album covers and promotional band images – as well as personal sketchbooks and notebooks never seen before in public.”
Members of the museum will get free entry, whilst general sale tickets will commence in April 2025.
NME spoke to Donwood in 2022, where we asked him what about his work, was so spiritually bound to the music of Thom Yorke and Radiohead. In response, Donwood replied: “I don’t know, Jesus! I don’t know anything about music, which might help. ‘I like the sound of that’ or ‘I don’t like the sound of that’ is about the limit of my musical understanding.
“For a long time, Thom and I would work alongside each other or almost despite each other. We’d work on the same thing for a while then we’d take turns on a picture. I’d usually win and take over and it became mine because he doesn’t have as much faith in his abilities as an artist as he does as a musician; which is fair enough because he is quite good at the old music!”
Meanwhile, Colin Greenwood will be coming out with his own photo book capturing the “middle era” of Radiohead. Speaking to NME, Greenwood said of the book: “It’s a really beautiful object, and I think people will appreciate that because it’s made to the same exacting standard as books by some of my favourite fine art photographers – people like Paul Graham.
“I think it tells a nice story about how five guys from Oxfordshire got together and worked on songs in various village halls, then managed to get that to stages around the world.”
He also revealed that the band had reunited for rehearsals, saying: “My brother has been unwell and is still recovering. Rehearsals were really fun and amicable, though. We rehearsed in this studio called The Church where we ended up finishing up ‘OK Computer’, so the last time I was there was 1996 recording the bass for ‘Airbag’. There we were, back in Crouch End. It was great, but beyond that get together, I’m sure we’ll get together and make plans – but for what, I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, brother Jonny also spoke to NME about a potential Radiohead reunion, saying the rehearsals were “fun and natural.” But when asked about future Radiohead plans, he replied: “There are no plans – we’ve lots of individual projects going on at the moment.”
Elsewhere, Yorke recently said he “really doesn’t give a fuck” if people want Radiohead to return.
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Alex Rigotti
NME
