Ray-gun

Blow-Up

1966

Pleasing Picture-winged Antlion (Glenurus gratus), family Myrmeleontidae, order Neuroptera, TN, USA

Antlions are related to lacewings and mantidflies (This is not a dragonfly).

Jim French. Longhorns

This rare print by Jim French features in SHOWstudio’s ‘Punk’ exhibition curated by Nick Knight, which traces the images and objects that defined the punk aesthetic. Jim French is the artist who produced the iconic nude cowboys image which came to adorn the tshirts of the most notorious punks

Punk was characterised by a desire to shock outrage and disturb. Its participants, many of which are captured in the compositions, embraced aggressive right wing imagery, excessive latex bondage garb and politically confrontational music capable of goading the mainstream out of mediocrity. Nowhere is this better represented than by the “Two Cowboys ” t-shirt, created by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and sold in their shop SEX. It belonged to series of provocative designs that caused public outcry, often with the wearers being arrested for indecent display. Tom of Finland has been repeatedly cited as authoring the notorious image on the t shirt, when in fact it was appropriated from artwork by Jim French. For the first time, we are showing French’s polaroid studies, original drawing, and the full “longhorn series” from which the image was taken. Shown alongside Tom of Finland’s drawings we reveal the stylistic differences between these two artists and debunk a long held fallacy within punk iconography.

The Photography of Punk