Proof Print for Nirvana's "Nevermind" Cover Artwork

This cover artwork for Nirvana's 1991 second studio album Nevermind illustrates the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) color model used to isolate individual colors for four-color printing. The artwork consists of the main album image featuring a swimming, naked baby boy, Spencer Elden, taken by photographer, Kirk Weddle.

Nevermind was the band’s first recording with drummer Dave Grohl (b. 1969). The line-up for the album included the members of Nirvana: vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain (1967–1994), Krist Novoselić on bass (b. 1965), Dave Grohl, and guest musicians Chad Channing (b. 1967) and Kirk Canning (b. 1963).

With the release of Nevermind on September 24, 1991, and the constant MTV rotation of the single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana became the face of the once underground genre of Grunge and suddenly made Seattle and the Pacific Northwest the epicenter of popular music culture in the early 1990s.

By the end of 1991, Nevermind was selling over 400,000 copies per week and by January 1992, the album was #1 on the Billboard 200 Top Albums chart. Nirvana’s success paved the way for bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, and others who soon followed. By all accounts, 1992 was the year of Grunge, and that year Nirvana undertook two tours; Cobain married Courtney Love (b. 1964) of the band Hole; Cobain’s and Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, was born; and the band headlined the Reading Festival.  Despite difficulties with drug use, Cobain continued to perform throughout 1993 and the beginning of 1994, when Nirvana had to cut their European tour short due to his overdose in Rome, Italy. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found in his Seattle home, dead by suicide. He was 27 years old. 

Despite his tragic death which lead to Nirvana disbanding, Nirvana and the Grunge genre have made an indelible mark on popular music that resonates to this day