“Burt Goldblatt’s Jazz Gallery 2” Exhibition at the Avram Gallery Through September 26

Photographer, photo editor, artist, award-winning record jacket designer and book designer Burt Goldblatt had a style that became a staple of mid century visual arts - innovative, creative, bold, improvisational, and always well researched and informed.

That style is on display now at the Avram Gallery at Stony Brook Southampton. "Burt Goldblatt's Jazz Gallery 2," a collaboration between The Jazz Loft and the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, is the gallery's current exhibition and will be open to the public through September 26.

From the pages of Life, Playboy, Esquire, and Metronome, to the walls of the Smithsonian, Goldblatt's creations defined American popular culture in many ways, most tangibly in the form of records purchased, owned, held, and well worn by hundreds of thousands of LP-loving Americans.

Ever the creative improvisor, Goldblatt used nonconventional techniques for the time in designing and crafting his creations. He often drew on photography and line drawings for his covers of cool-jazz LPs.

In the early 1950's after the introduction of the LP, the most progressive American cover designs were created for jazz albums, and Goldblatt was among the pioneers in establishing the cool-jazz style. It encompassed black and white portraits and studio photographs, including expressionistic line drawings of performers in action. He alternated between using photography and drawings and his distinctive covers show close ups of musicians blowing their instruments at the same time striving for visual simplicity.

"The Jazz Loft is honored to celebrate the artistry and legacy of Burt Goldblatt," said exhibit curator Thomas J. Manuel, president and founder of The Jazz Loft and Endowed Artist in Residence Fellow at Stony Brook University. "We hope that this vast collection of mostly unreleased and never published works are inspirational to all that view them."

Learn more about the exhibit at the Avram Gallery website.