Stanley Donwood

Stanley Donwood met Thom Yorke while they were both art students at the University of Exeter. Yorke went on to become the frontman of Radiohead, and Donwood effectively became the band's house artist, designing all of Radiohead's album covers from 1995's The Bends to the present day--including such memorable images as the bleak, scratchy roadscape for OK Computer's cover and the landfill heap of colored word blocks on Hail to the Thief. Donwood has been behind most of the band's other artwork as well, from singles sleeves and tour posters to the addled-looking mouse-ish bear icon on Radiohead bumper stickers and other memorabilia. Red Maze is Donwood's first full-length monograph, and surveys his graphic work done for Radiohead and Matt Herbert alongside his paintings, woodcut sequences (such as London Views, graphic renderings of apocalyptic disasters befalling London) and an extended commentary by the artist on his work and its evolution. Donwood's intriguing balance of vulnerable introversion and political vision characterizes the nebulous anxieties of our times, and is marvelously served by this abundantly illustrated volume.