Punk visual art is artwork associated with the

punk subculture The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of Punk rock, music, Punk ideologies, ideologies, Punk fashion, fashion, and other forms of expression, Punk visual art, visual art, dance, Punk literature, literature, and film. La ...

and the

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

movement. It is prevalent in

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released album, studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to: * the printed paperboard covers typically used to package: ** sets of a ...

s, flyers for punk concerts and

punk zine A punk zine (or punkzine) is a zine related to the punk subculture and hardcore punk music genre. Often primitively or casually produced, they feature punk literature, such as social commentary, punk poetry, news, gossip, music reviews and ar ...

s, but has also been prolific in other mediums, such as the visual arts, the performing arts, literature and cinema. Punk manifested itself "differently but consistently" in different cultural spheres, including art, music, and literature. Punk also led to the birth of several movements: new wave, no wave, dark wave, industrial, hardcore, queercore, etc., which are sometimes showcased in art galleries and exhibition spaces. The punk aesthetic was a dominant strand from 1982 to 1986 in the many art galleries of the East Village of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

History

In his book, '' Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century'', cultural critic Greil Marcus expands upon the historical influence of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

, Lettrism and Situationism on punk aesthetics in the art and music of the 1980s and early 1990s. Marcus argues that artists in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly those surrounding the Situationist International artist and theorist

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

spearheaded a movement fueled by alienation and "angry, absolute demands" on society and art that gave rise to the punk sensibility. At its core was a subculture of artistic rebellion.

Aesthetics

Characteristics associated with punk visual art is the usage of black or gray colors, and letters cut out from newspapers and magazines: a device previously associated with

collage and kidnap ransom notes. A prominent example of that style is the cover of the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

'' Never Mind the Bollocks'' album designed by Jamie Reid. Images and figures are also sometimes cut and pasted from magazines and newspapers to create

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

s, album covers and paste-ups for posters that were often reproduced using copy machines. Xerox machines significantly increased the spread of punk visual art, with punk photographer Ruby Ray noting that "the new technology we had then was Xerox ..and that's why posters became such a big thing because you could make something and reproduce it and make hundreds of them, and it would be cheap." Punk visual art often conveys a rejection of traditionalist values with self-derision that can be compared to

In New York City

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in the mid-1970s, there was much overlap between the

punk music Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and the

No wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

downtown art scene. In 1978, many of the visual artists who were regulars at Tier 3,

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

and other punk-related music venues participated in punk art exhibitions in New York. Early punk art exhibits included the Colab organized '' The Times Square Show'' (1980) and ''New York New Wave'' at PS1 (1981). Punk art found an ongoing home on the New York's lower east side with the establishment of several artist-run galleries such as ABC No Rio, FUN Gallery, Civilian Warfare, Nature Morte and Gracie Mansion Gallery. The art critic Carlo McCormick reviewed numerous exhibitions from this time in the East Village Eye. In the early 1980s, New York was on the verge of bankruptcy; the punk protest of the mid-1970s was transformed into a new artistic sensibility. It is in this context that Richard Hambleton arrives in New York. Drawing on the most visceral aspects of punk, he created " urban art" with the aim of constructing real experiences that provoke sensations of fear. Drawing on the poetic terrorism conceptualized by the Situationist movement, the creation of over 450 life-size black male figures in half-lit doorways and on the walls of dilapidated Manhattan buildings sought to provoke fear in passersby. Hambleton worked in the middle of the night and was never caught red-handed. His approach sought to confront preconceived notions of what art is and where it should be presented. "People expect to see balls in galleries (they do, sometimes). The work I do outside is somewhere between art and life,"

In San Francisco

In 1976, punk rock first arrived in San Francisco, and by the early 1980s, it became a much stronger presence in the city. These bands advertised themselves largely through punk posters, taking inspiration from earlier countercultural groups in the city, such as the hippies of the 1960s. Typified by a DIY-aesthetic, irreverent messages, and crude graphics, these posters took aim at conventional ideas regarding art and expression. They were largely clustered around the Tenderloin neighborhood, though their presence spread across the city as well. Malcolm McLaren, a fashion designer and music manager, remarked that punk posters were "a declaration of war against art...the rats' ears of the city fighting the consumerist ideology of the mainstream." The Tom Law San Francisco Bay Area Punk and Rock Handbill and Poster Collection in Stanford University Libraries holds one of the largest collections of extant punk posters from San Francisco, collected by Tom Law during his various walks throughout the city in the early-mid 1980s.

Notable artists

References

External links

98 Bowery: 1969-1989
- catalogue for a 1978 exhibition at the Washington Project for the Arts
Everything's Punk in This Pop-Up Art Show
- review of the 2016 exhibition at the Invisible Dog {{DEFAULTSORT:Punk Visual Art Artist groups and collectives Contemporary art movements Visual arts genres Punk es:Movimiento punk