Newbridge Silverware welcomed their latest incredible exhibition to the renowned Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge on Tuesday, with an emotional exhibition of some of the late rockstar Kurt Cobain's most treasured items going on show.
Fans of Nirvana and their iconic frontman flocked to Newbridge Silverware over the past two days, where there were some tears and some laughing, with many of them overwhelmed to meet his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, his sister, Kim and mother Wendy who arrived to open the exhibition of Kurt’s personal items, never previously seen in public.
A friendship between William Doyle, owner of the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland and Kurt Cobain’s mother, sisters and daughter has brought to Ireland never exhibited intimate items of the rock legend’s life. The exhibition opened on Tuesday July 17 and runs till September 30 in Newbridge, Ireland.
Cobain’s Irish roots are well known. He believed that his family originated in County Cork but in fact his Irish ancestors emigrated from Carrickmore, County Tyrone, in 1875.
Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of Kurt Cobain (left) with Kurt’s sister, Kim Cobain and Kurt’s mother Wendy O’Connor (right), pictured at the personal collection of the legendary singer.Cobain’s family has specially curated some of his very personal items for this once in a lifetime commemoration. The Museum of Style Icons now houses Kurt’s drawings and sketches along with clothing, hand-written lyrics and the only known car Kurt owned during his life, a powder blue 1965Dodge Dart.
Frances Bean Cobain, says: “I am so thrilled to participate and support my family as they honor their brother and son at The Museum of Style Icons in Ireland. I have always been the most intimately informed of who my father was by my grandmother and aunts. I am so ecstatic that their view of who Kurt was gets to be celebrated with Nirvana fans the world over”.
William Doyle, owner of the Museum of Style Icons, comments: “These items have never previously been seen by the public and it’s an incredible honour to be a part of this amazing exhibition. We have handled exhibitions of Michael Jackson, Cher, Prince and many other music and fashion icons and we expect this exhibition of Kurt’s life to be one of our greatest exhibitions curated by our museum.
As the Cobain family has never done anything like this previously, industry pundits say that it “will likely be as big as the recent Pink Floyd and David Bowie exhibitions that took place at the V&A in London.”
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Born in Aberdeen Washington, Cobain formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard in 1987 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene which later became known as ‘Grunge’. Nirvana's debut album Bleach was released on the independent record label SubPop in 1989.
Nirvana found breakthrough success with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from their second album ‘Nevermind’ in 1991. Following that success, Nirvana was labelled "the flagship band" of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as "the spokesman of a generation". Cobain, however, was uncomfortable with the label, believing his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal problems often subject to media attention.
Kurt’s sister, Kim Cobain, concludes: "With this exhibition we hope to bring the focus back to Kurt’s roots, vision, and artistic genius to inspire everyone not to lose their creativity and childlike wonder."
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