In August 2017, an exhibition was held in Seattle with the participation of previously unknown paintings by Kurt Cobain. Unlike the works of other authors, the drawings of the leader of the Nirvana group were not for sale. According to the widow of musician Courtney Love, these paintings are too expensive for family members. The exhibited works help to understand what was happening in Kurt's shredded soul.
Childhood injuries: betrayal instead of love
The future idol of millions was born in the town of Aberdeen in the northwestern United States. My father was a car mechanic, and my mother a housewife. The city was a depressing place: unemployment, alcoholism and drug addiction reigned. Residents hunted by growing mushrooms and marijuana.
Already at an early age, Kurt showed a tendency to destruction and vandalism. He loved to throw police cars at banks full of stones. Doctors diagnosed ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and prescribed tranquilizers. But the therapy was unsuccessful.
When the boy was 9 years old, his parents divorced. This greatly shocked Kurt, he became closed and sullen. Divorce was perceived by him as a betrayal. For a while he lived with his mother, but did not get along with his stepfather. Moving to his father, Kurt faced the same problem. As a result, he had to alternately live with different relatives.
First drawings: a small window from the stuffy world
The void must be filled with something. Kurt drew a lot. Teachers at the school noted his high artistic abilities, which was very important for the boy. He was never praised at home. Once he showed his grandfather a drawing of Mickey Mouse, made from memory, but he did not believe it and said that Kurt simply copied it along the contours. Then the indignant boy grabbed a sheet of paper and immediately gave out drawings by Donald Duck and Goofy. Grandfather was shocked.
The first drawings were illustrations for comics, but later Kurt's work became more gloomy. He began to resort to the themes of violence and suffering. Terrible monsters and even Satan appeared in the images. These were truly scary paintings. Kurt Cobain once copied a vagina from a porno magazine and showed it to his classmate. He did not understand anything and asked: “What is this?”
Drug addiction
Back in school, Kurt began smoking marijuana. The grass did not bring relief, on the contrary, psychoses only worsened. He could break the window or break the door if he forgot the keys. Sometimes Kurt and his friends burst into an abandoned house and staged a pogrom there. At 18, he became addicted to LSD, which caused terrible visions, further injuring his sick psyche.
After the creation of the first rock band Fecal Matter, Cobain became addicted to heroin. He believed, but could not become addicted to this drug, since in Aberdeen it was difficult to get it. In addition, it seemed to him that heroin was created for real rock and roll actors. Many of Kurt’s musical idols used him regularly.
Heroin turned out to be exactly the drug that allowed Cobain to escape from reality and brought temporary peace. Due to lack of funds, Kurt could not always buy an expensive drug and replaced it with cough syrup. He could not get rid of this addiction for the rest of his life.
Nirvana: Incesticide album cover
After Nevermind's unexpected success, the group decided to make the next record unlike the previous one. Work dragged on for a year. As a result, In Utero was the last album. Kurt Cobain spent a lot of time with his newly born daughter, so the record company decided to release the Incesticide compilation.
The cover for the album was drawn by Kurt himself. A child with a broken skull looks at a poppy flower and holds a strange bony creature by the hand. The picture, as it were, is a continuation of another, earlier one, which depicts an embryo in the womb of an addict mother. Many noted the possible impact of the work of Edward Munch - the same state of despair and loneliness, from which there is no way out.
Health problems
In addition to the nervous disorders resulting from ADHD and the regular use of drugs, Cobain suffered severe stomach pains. Given the lifestyle, there was no question of systemic treatment. Kurt himself prescribed a medicine - the systematic use of heroin. The pain went away, but returned again when the dose ceased to act. The terrible paintings of Kurt Cobain, the psychology of their plots - all these are just mirrors reflecting the torment he experienced.
In addition, the musician from childhood suffered from chronic bronchitis, and in recent years began to lose his voice. During the next exacerbation, Cobain flew to Rome for treatment. Presumably, then he made his first suicide attempt, swallowing a pack of sleeping pills and drinking champagne.
Existential Horror: Drawings Chilling the Soul
In Seattle, all paintings were exhibited in original wooden frames made by Cobain himself. In addition to the famous Incesticide, one could see a no less creepy "Fistula" which depicts a green man with the body of an insect. From the jointed limbs, the strings go up, like a puppet doll.
Creepy ghost face in pink colors; raccoon-like wild animals clinging to branches of a charred tree; skinny figure (presumably a self portrait); a man against a background of bright flowers with a bloodied anus; a few black and white comics are far from all of Kurt Cobain’s paintings.
Madness and genius often go side by side. Masterpieces are born through unbearable mental and physical pain. Modern art critics are sure that Kurt Cobain could become a great artist if he chose painting instead of music as his main occupation. But even those works that he left became an invaluable contribution to alternative painting.