Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: Punk Graphics, 1976-1986 by j- No
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Museum of Arts and Design Manhattan NYC April 15, 2019
More than forty years after punk exploded onto the music scenes of New York and London, its impact on the larger culture is still being felt. Born in a period of economic malaise, punk’s energy coalesced into a powerful subcultural phenomenon that transcended music to affect other fields, and especially graphic design. Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die explores the visual language of punk through hundreds of its most memorable graphics, from the shocking remixes of expropriated images and texts to the DIY zines and flyers that challenged the commercial slickness of the mainstream media.
“Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die charts punk’s explosive impact on design and examines its complex relationship with art, history, and culture,” said Chris Scoates, MAD’s Nanette L. Laitman Director. “Punk questioned everything, and it’s that spirit of inquiry that is driving MAD forward today, presenting and debating innovative works and ideas with lots of energy, color, and noise.”
John (Johnny Rotten) Lydon, of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited (PiL), kicked off a full slate of public programs - beginning with an intimate and fascinating (as well as entertaining) interview and discussion at the press preview, which NYTCAP attended. Â
Other events will include an evening on punk photography with David Godlis, Bob Gruen, Marcia Resnick, and Paul Zone; a night of music with DJ Phast Phreddie; a conversation with Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein, plus programs focused on punk fashion, band history, and more.
My interest in this exhibition goes beyond my own art and design background, but also as an active participant in the Houston TX punk scene. Leaving my musicianly lack of talent behind, I found refuge as a concert reviewer for the late Public News weekly, and also as a co-producer of KTRU-FM’s cutting edge award-winning and popular punk radio program “The S&M Show”, (”Friday Nights In Hell!”) founded and hosted by the still punk af Marilyn Mock - for 11 years. Â
Having a huge collection of punk lps, eps, tapes, demos, and 45s, as well as many posters, fliers, zines, and scores of buttons, this was a must-see show. Getting to meet and talk with Mr. Lydon was an added incentive..
Originating at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan’s Cranbrook Art Museum, the exhibition has been adapted for its run at MAD to include selections that showcase the visual output of New York City’s punk scene: flyers from the famed East Village punk venue CBGB; concert posters and memorabilia from Blondie, the Ramones, and other artists; early issues of Punk magazine; and more.
“Since its rebellious inception in the 1970s, punk has always exhibited very visual forms of expression,” said Andrew Blauvelt, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum and Curator-at-Large for Design at MAD. “From the dress and hairstyles of its devotees and the onstage theatrics of its musicians to the design of its numerous forms of printed matter, punk’s energy coalesced into a powerful subcultural phenomenon that transcended music to affect other fields such as visual art, fashion, and graphic design.”
Arranged thematically, Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die examines a variety of visual design strategies, including parody and pastiche, and techniques such as appropriation and collage. Further, it illuminates the influence of genres such as science fiction, horror, and comics on punk and post-punk graphics. The works on view move from the sobriety of a stripped-down, black-and-white minimalism to the expansive color palettes and expressive forms of New Wave graphics.
Legendary graphic designers Malcolm Garrett and Peter Saville, both of whom have work represented in the exhibition, collaborated with MAD to create original promotional materials, including a subway poster campaign, a three-story banner for the Museum’s facade, and merchandise for The Store at MAD. Garrett’s “Too Fast to Live” graphic—featuring bold black type on a metallic silver ground with a square pop of fluorescent orange—recalls his cover art for the Buzzcocks’ 1989 compilation album Product; while Saville’s “Too Young to Die” borrows its typographic treatment and high-contrast black-and-white colorway from his 1980 design for Joy Division’s Closer album cover.
In addition, from April 25 through July 11, MAD will present a global punk cinema series of films from Mexico, Japan, Cameroon, Hungary, and other countries underscoring the variety of contexts in which punk music has galvanized youth movements for rebellion and social change.
During Museum hours, a multimedia presentation, Please Kill Me: Voices from the Archive, will play continuously in the gallery. Narrated by McNeil and McCain and compiled by filmmaker/artist Brendan Toller, the presentation includes vintage interviews from Iggy Pop, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, Debbie Harry, Jim Carroll, Billy Name, and others, combined with never-before-seen photographs (including many of Nico) and ephemera from Fred W. McDarrah, Adam Ritchie, Danny Fields, Bob Gruen, James Marshall and Gillian McCain, David Godlis, Leni Sinclair, Mike Barich, Natalie Schlossman, Paul Zone, and Tom Hearn.
