Bands Named After Works of Art

A friend of mine had a facebook thread on this topic a while ago, but being facebook it is unsearchable, so I thought I'd get ilx to help compile a new list. While I'm happy for definitions to be stretched a little, please don't go too wild about what constitutes a "work of art" - I'm fairly sure we already have threads about bands named after books and films, for example (and if we don't, somebody else can start them).

My own suggestions:
* Decisive Pink (after Kandinsky)
* An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump (after Wright)
* Guernica (almost certainly after the painting by Picasso)
* Blueboy (??? maybe after the Gainsborough ???)

Babe Rainbow (painting by Peter Blake)

Head of David (sculpture by Michelangelo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVxFXmZB_0

Ha, I did wonder if there was a band called Whistler's Mother out there somewhere, but thought it might be cheating to go look it up without already knowing of them.

i instantly cheated

tbf i haven't looked anything else up, i just thought this would be a funny name for rock guys to pick and then had to go see if they had

Dali's Car

(Not the actual title, but I suppose it gets in on a technicality.)

So bad! Banned from the thread! (Nah, it's fine... I'm going to go form a band called 'Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind' so I can put it on this thread.)

xpost

I'm sure every work of art has been taken up as a band name by somebody, somewhere. I'd be shocked if there isn't at least one Piss Christ out there.

There has to be a band called American Gothic surely?

Ooh, I've thought of one: The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

It was assumed that they took their name from a Captain Beefheart song from his album Trout Mask Replica.[2] Instead, the name came from a dream from Murphy's friend, where he dreamed of buying a car belonging to Salvador Dalí.[1]

Too much of a stretch for this thread's premise as well, sorry - but 21 Pilots is the amount of pilots that die in All My Sons, the Arthur Miller play about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright#Defective_engines_sold_to_U.S._military_in_World_War_II

There ought to be a Clown Torture (named after the Bruce Nauman installation).

Mona Lisa ("French progressive rock band of the 1970's in a similar vein to Ange")

https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_band/249.JPG

if only Wham! had been called Whaam!

does this count as a work of art?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/quietus_production/images/articles/9596/the_teardrop_explodes_comic_1344259274.jpg

This wind chime sculpture inspired a band name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_Garden

Merzbow is not a band but

Soundgarden, right?

Merzbow is not a band but

― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague)

Solo artists definitely count, and that's a good one.

I googled to see if there was a twee indie band called The Haywains, of course there was a twee indie band called The Haywains

bauhaus, sort of

Apparently there was an Icelandic electronic act called LHOOQ

i guess A Winged Victory For The Sullen got their name from the Winged Victory of Samothrace? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace

I vaguely remember LHOOQ from way back in the day - and on looking them up, Johann Johannson was in them!

bauhaus, sort of

― mookieproof

Yeah, schools of art and artist names were things I wasn't really looking for, but I'm okay with expanding the thread to include those.

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa

already mentioned

I'm okay with expanding the thread to include those

The Atlanta-based post-hardcore band Malevich:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8fH5r8NKI8

Cabaret Voltaire, kind of

Fra Lippi Lippi

Lippo

Nighthawks would be a decent band name... [looking it up] I see there are a couple but neither seems very noteworthy.

There was a Scottish band in the 80s called the Bathers who I'm guessing took their name from either Cezanne or Seurat

Blueboy were named after a gay porno magazine - but according to wikipedia that magazine did parody the Gainsborough painting for its first issue, so in a roundabout way...

I'd be shocked if there isn't at least one Piss Christ out there.

great crust punk band from Melbourne, sadly defunct

The Aluminum Group - the band's name is taken from a line of furniture by Charles and Ray Eames

They also have a song called Rose Selavy's Valise, referencing Duchamp's female alter ego:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3tWSMyYEhA

Here's one I instantly googled -

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/la-pietà-mn0002237682

https://img.artlogic.net/w_2020,h_1830,c_limit/exhibit-e/61fd44bf9789833084405ac2/9f99cb8500a8834da3e32afb44ace0a0.jpeg

Pretty sure Eat were named after this Robert Indiana sculpture as they copped the type for their logo early on.

Small potatoes, but I named my band Rome Pays Off, after a Basquiat painting.

The Fall

oh i've misremembered that lol

https://e.snmc.io/i/600/w/5ea75c05930973acef3e705a853d84dc/1538964/a-bigger-splash-i-dont-believe-a-word-silence-cover-art.jpg

Head of David (sculpture by Michelangelo)

https://www.discogs.com/artist/523-Rothko

(oh, an artist, not the actual art)

Yeah I’m now mildly annoyed that there’s no Rothko called Color Field (or Green on Red); or for that matter any Pollock called Action Painting.

Along similar lines, there was a Glasgow band in the 80s called The Fauves, which IIRC featured the comics writer Grant Morrison

The Shower Scene From Psycho was a band from Australia which probably fits.

klarification korner: nighthawks is also a tom waits LP title, fra lippo lippi is the title of a poem by browning (but yes, abt the painter)

(to be clear i think the first is a more likely source for rockers to pick up a nice word from and the second less likely -- wtf reads browning these days -- but FLL are norwegian so who knows)

i cheated and googled this but now I actually want to hear them...

Unwound covers Joy Division - a strange but concise description for the Phoenix based three-piece, Death of Marat.

Browning is pretty good imo - I mean the shorter stuff anyway, I've never waded thru the epics

today I learned that old school drum and bass producer/DJ Dr S Gachet did *not* get his name from the Van Gogh painting

How did you get your DJ name?
Well I wanted a name that once you hear it you never forget it. It is a French name, but a lot of people forget to put the accent over the E. Many people think that I got the name from the painting Dr Gachet that was sold for £82 million, I didn't - Gachet means Trig of a Gun. Everyone kept saying to me I was too fast, so I thought Gachet fits. Basically everyone is calling themselves DJ that, DJ this & DJ whatever, it's too boring so instead - DOCTOR!! I'm doctor of my field so I am Dr S Gachet the Vinocologist - I hit a different angle.

klarification korner: nighthawks is also a tom waits LP title, fra lippo lippi is the title of a poem by browning (but yes, abt the painter)

(to be clear i think the first is a more likely source for rockers to pick up a nice word from and the second less likely -- wtf reads browning these days -- but FLL are norwegian so who knows)

― mark s, Tuesday, April 9, 2024 10:32 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Most places give Browning as the source for the band's name & tho there's no real solid proof I can see, it seems likely just bcz it's an odd painter to pick and there are a few other ways to give the name (Filippo Lippi, Fra Filippo Lippi, Lippo Lippi) if it were the painter.

If they formed in 1980 Browning's not quite as dead as he is now. Still in the anthologies.

why do I care? because wtf reads Browning these days, it me. Early or late, long or short, I like Browning. Kept a tumblr for him turning 200 ages ago.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY6VhVtgg4kCrvlh9U9aRjVmSCVhqqB9vFIt7_PORKUg&s

when i was googling the lippo lippi material (factchecking isn't cheating!) the AI leant to suggest i might be asking the question "is fra lippo lippi filipino?"

AI finding new racially charged ways to work with the traditional Filippino Lippi/Filippo lippi confusion.

Ha! i came here to post Death of Marat bc when I encountered them almost 25 years ago I was perplexed by the band name until I realized it was a work of art i was not familiar with

dang i have not thought about Death of Marat for a very long time

need a thread for bands named after items exhibited in madame tussauds :)

(first bid: two called wax, plus a wax museum and a nightmares in wax)

name some works of art named after bands https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5c87f92063ea954f4823026a/1:1/w_320,c_limit/andrew%20bird%20my%20finest%20work.jpg

The most interesting thing about Fra Lippo Lippi is that their former keyboardist, Rune Kristoffersen, started (and still runs) the amazing Rune Grammofon jazz (well, mostly, kinda) label.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-david/another-day-another-lifetime/

Spiral Jetty

https://www.discogs.com/artist/575737-Spiral-Jetty

Thought The Last Dinner Party would qualify, but a fan page corrected this assumption:

The first name of the band, "The Dinner Party", was inspired by the idea of a huge debauched dinner party where people came together to celebrate with a hedonistic banquet. It was only after they had named their band they found out about the art installation of the same name by US artist Judy Chicago.

One of at least three R. Mutts on Discogs:

https://i.discogs.com/J5x94nDy2icTwEUb2u1VMKJ38dIbw-SHlnbBKBCJJ0c/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE2Mzgz/NTM0LTE2MDc0MTg5/NTgtNzA2Ny5qcGVn.jpeg