Punk In The Art Museum
By Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, September 2024
Too young in the 80s to fully comprehend the punk phenomenon, I find myself between two generations of punk enthusiasts. While I can't claim to have lived the punk experience firsthand, I can, however, appreciate its sheer visual appeal, the profound impact, and the lasting influence it has had across generations.
Punk is far more than a music genre; it’s a mix of fashion, design, and cultural expression, so rich and vibrant that it fueled my desire to bridge the culture to a broader audience by bringing exemplary collections and iconic photographic works into the museum sphere. So, when the passionate and astute collector Andrew Krivine approached me with the opportunity to mount an exhibition of his vast and excellent collection at OMA, joining forces with three esteemed experts, I was eager to collaborate.
Together with legendary designer and Vivienne Westwood fashion-collector Malcolm Garrett, celebrated photographer Sheila Rock, and my partner in crime for this project, the brilliant curator and designer of this exhibition, Michael Worthington, we created an exhibition that celebrates, explores, and showcases the punk legacy.
From a museum perspective, the raw energy of punk, its bold unapologetic style, vibrant activist messaging, and blatant disregard for “all-that-is-archy” and “-isms” make for a rich and exciting exhibition. Punk’s disregard for conventional structures and ideologies created a fertile ground for artistic expression and innovation.
Torn Apart at OMA is a fantastic visual exploration of punk and new wave culture from 1976 to 1986, capturing its essence and examining its profound impact on youth both then and now. This exhibition not only highlights the era's distinctive aesthetic but also showcases how its rebellious spirit continues to resonate in contemporary culture.
The Punk Agenda.
Several compelling lines of inquiry offer themselves to the museum visitors. At its core, Torn Apart amplifies the fundamental agenda of the Punk and New Wave movements: the empowerment of rebellious voices and those of the unheard, and challenging the status quo by rejecting systems of control and hierarchy.
Punk itself is positioned between the Swinging London of the 1960s and the Cool Britannia of the 1990s; all three eras stand as distinct cultural revolutions spanning the world of art, fashion, and music, which were driven by their youth and marked by radical transformation. The anti-establishment cultural phenomenon had an abundance of great art that was generated by—as Andrew Krivine puts it—“people who didn’t have PhDs, people who were freed from the shackles of society, and whose voice mattered.”
This raw authenticity is reflected in the thousands of anonymous items within Krivine's collection, which he finds inspiring due to the potential they represent for future generations. Punk is not merely a graphic aesthetic; it is a graphic imperative.
The punk artist is an activist, and a rebel, and their engagement can be seen in their use of the printed word. Boldly and unapologetically riffing off and subverting traditional political campaign posters and propaganda slogans, creating direct, provocative, sometimes cryptic, messages, and aggressive, expressive lyrics loaded with agenda. In punk, the medium is the message, and the message is the medium, exemplifying a potent fusion of art and activism.
Punk as both Medium and Message.
For Malcolm Garrett, “posters, from a designer point of view, are the ideal medium.” Their immediacy is unmatched—direct, unfiltered, and unpretentious. This medium’s rawness reflects the essence of punk itself. From an art historical perspective, the use of Xeroxing in punk design represents a natural evolution from the mass printing techniques popularized by the Pop Art movement of the 1960s.
Among the standout examples from Krivine’s collection is the 1977 tour poster for The Damned/Dead Boys. Its striking neon colors and innovative shattered mirror design exemplify the era’s bold visual style. Michael Worthington’s favorite is the X3 studio neon screen print of Joe Strummer, which remains as compelling today as it was then. These posters not only capture the spirit of their time but also demonstrate how punk designs continually inspire and resample each other, maintaining their relevance across generations.
The DIY Identity.
Punk was and is about identity. The clothes you wear and the music you listen to are definers of culture but, primarily, they define your identity as a person and an attachment to a group. “It’s about the individual, you’re not relying on others to be seen,” says Garrett. “And then it stays with you for life... here we are 45 years later.”
Garrett has said that he was trying to find “a visual expression for something that doesn’t have a physical form.” That was the task he set for himself, and he achieved it by being an active participant in the scene, wearing the clothes, wanting to be different, and wanting to stand out in the crowd.
The same is true of his designs. That’s how the iconic look of the Buzzcocks came about: “They wanted to be different from the rest, especially the Sex Pistols,” he says. Punk is about choosing how you want to label yourself, creating your own label, and not letting others label you.
Rejecting and Belonging.
Photographer Sheila Rock documented Punk and New Wave movements because she felt something special and different was happening. Self-taught, she captured the punk world around her, a moment so significant that it shaped generations. Her photographs are a brilliant testimony to the fashion of the time.
But more than a bystander witness, Rock brings you to the core of the scene with such intimate closeness to its most prominent figures that you feel you were there. In Rock’s photographs, her subjects are being seen as individuals. While there may not be any entry requirement to punk, it establishes a barrier, a separation from broader society. To belong to the punk scene is to be seen as an individual, an outsider yet simultaneously belonging to a tribe.
Like walls for posters, the body becomes a canvas for fashion to make statements. The blurring of gender lines, with androgynous looks and unisex outfits, is another way punk subverted social norms. One of Malcolm Garrett’s favorite pieces in his collection is a Malcolm McLaren/Vivienne Westwood Bondage jacket designed for Seditionaries in 1978, “because it played on the subversive sexual behavior on the High St in a non-sexual and genderless way.” He bought it from the Seditionaries shop as soon as he had the money, “because it was brilliant.”
Relationships and belonging during the punk era also meant overturning the traditional designer-band-record label relationship, establishing remarkably close bonds between the band and designers. As Garrett points out, “I worked with the band, not for the record company.” He worked for years with the Buzzcocks and still works with Duran Duran. While music can connect across generations, It is clear that punk offers more than just music as the connector.
Art is the link.
Art is the link between the band, the fashion, the music, the fans, the designs, the record labels; it is the art that ties it all together. In fact, journalist Peter Silverton went as far as defining Punk as an art movement. According to Garrett and Krivine, a genuine interest in music was usually accompanied by a genuine interest in the arts.
In the ’70s, most bands had a member who had been to art school such as Bryan Ferry, Adam Ant, Glen Matlock, and Paul Simonon. Malcolm Garrett, a budding designer, created the first Buzzcocks posters and presented them in his degree show in 1978 in Manchester. These posters have now become iconic. Garrett was obsessed with the details that designers too often tried to hide because their work was commercially motivated.
Garrett is recognized as the person who introduced modernism to punk, citing Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and R. B. Kitaj as sources of inspiration, while mining both high and low culture for his designs. Punk designs are connected to art history and can teach you about balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, tone, form, color, value, and composition.
Punk Art and Culture.
A vibrant, accessible museum needs to reflect its varied community, and this includes embracing alternative cultures. The merit of curating high-quality exhibitions like Torn Apart and presenting counter/sub/alternative cultures in an art museum is a way to foster better understanding, to connect people to the “other,” to the less known; a way to bridge parallel lives.
Punk is a culture in no need of legitimization – an act too often associated with placing something in a museum. Here, placing Torn Apart at OMA is an intentional act allowing us to scrutinize, ponder, and marvel at the punk culture, but also at the work and labor of love of four extraordinary experts over the years.
I extend my gratitude to Malcolm Garrett, Andrew Krivine, Sheila Rock, and Michael Worthington for infusing this exhibition with their boundless passion, collections, graphics, photographs, memorabilia, and fashion. The thousands of elements on view represent as many pieces of their heart, soul, and life, contributing to making Torn Apart into such a rich and ebullient visual feast.
You too can immerse yourself in punk culture at the Orlando Museum of Art from September 21, 2024 - January 5, 2025. Purchase tickets online or at the museum.