At the 5th Italian Parsons Day, in Rome, we visited the exposition "Magritte, The central story": more than 70 pictures by the great belgian painter, which we admired to know better the artist, and because Magritte is the principal influencer of Storm Thorgerson, the graphic designer which, alone or with the Hipgnosis studio, devised the most beatiful artworks of The Alan Parsons Project, Alan Parsons and Pink Floyd. In this page we inserted some photocompositions which show the Magrittian references introduced by Thorgerson in some Parsons covers.

Magritte's picture The catapult of the desert (bigger image), compared with the cover artwork of the original version of the album Tales Of Mistery And Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe by The Alan Parsons Project.

L'ami intime (bigger image), compared with various artwork elements of the Tales innersleeve. Magritte was a lover of the Poe works, especially of the tale The man of the crowd, which inspired to Magritte the man with the hat, recurring in many of his works.

Detail of the Pyramid innersleeve (up), compared with a detail of The nocturnal genre. The critics say that Magritte often represents the womans with covered face,
most frequently with a cloth, because of the suicide of Magritte's mother, which was found drowned with a cloth on the face.

The Present and, in the corner, detail of the Vulture Culture sleeve. Also for Magritte the vulture represents a critic to the contemporary society.

The sleeve of the Alan Parsons album Try Anything Once (bigger image) recalls at least two recurring elements of the Magrittian works: the man with the hat and the white sphere, and maybe also the handbell (present on the sleeve variation for musicassette, here represented), which could recall the jingle-bells recurring in Magritte's works, like for instance the previous picture The Present. Up, from left to right, the Magrittian works The voice of blood, The ignorant fairy and Golconde. The other objects holded by the men represent songs, since they are associated to the excerpts in the innersleeve.

The exit from school compared with the sleeve of the USA version of Live.

The sensible string (bigger image), compared with an element of the innersleeve of the European version of Live.
Open spaces are common in both Magritte and Thorgerson works.

The inhabitants of the river and, in the corner, a detail of the innersleeve of Live (European and USA version):
in both cases the characters have dummy head but human body (please note the hands).

The On Air sleeve (down, left) compared with various Magrittian influences: an image of a titanic lamp, with which Magritte itself stands; up right, a drawing from Les Poèmes, a book of Mesens with Magritte paintings; down right, detail from The crazes of greatness.