RIP: Ray Lowry - Clash "War Artist"

Artist Ray Lowry passed away this past October 14, 2008, at the age of 64. While touring America with The Clash in 1979, Lowry was nicknamed the "War Artist" by the band’s front man, Joe Strummer. The Clash had invited Lowry to tour with them as an official artist when the group made its first incursion into the land of Coca-Cola, and the resulting sketches made by the punk war correspondent were striking.

[ The Clash - Ray Lowry. An artwork from Lowry’s sketchbook, made while the artist toured America with The Clash in 1979. Signed Limited Edition prints of artworks from Lowry’s Clash sketchbook, are available from the See Gallery. ]

I was at the February 9th, 1979 premiere concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium when The Clash assaulted Los Angeles during their "Give ‘Em Enough Rope Tour". Hollywood’s original punk venue and den of iniquity, The Masque, closed for that evening; left hanging on its dilapidated front door was a hand-scrawled sign that informed the club’s nonconformist regulars that everyone had gone to see "the only band that matters". It seemed that every punk within 500 miles attended that landmark concert, which also featured special guest stars Bo Diddley and The Dils (still one of my favorite original 1977 punk bands from San Francisco).

Thinking back to that wonderfully cacophonous show, I cannot help but think of Ray Lowry. He was roaming the concert hall, all the while furiously drawing away in his sketchbook, trying to capture the rage and excitement of it all. Upon returning home to the UK after the tour, he would design the album jacket for London Calling, the Clash’s third album. It would become one of his better known images, a brash tribute to Elvis Presley’s first album, linking punk to early rock and roll. Later in life Lowry would publish, "The Clash: Up-Close and Personal" a book of sketches made while touring in America with the band in 1979.

[ LEFT: London Calling - Album cover for The Clash, 1979. Designed by Ray Lowry; photograph by Pennie Smith. RIGHT: Elvis Presley - Album cover, 1956. Designed by Colonel Tom Parker; photograph by William S. Randolph. ]

But Lowry was much more than just an artist who worked with The Clash. He was an accomplished cartoonist, illustrator, and writer who contributed works to numerous English publications, including The Face, Punch, The Guardian, and New Musical Express (NME). In fact, I first become familiar with Lowry’s cartoons as they ran in NME during the early 1970s. Lowry was also a painter, and a retrospective of his urban landscapes opened in October, 2008, for a month long run at the See Gallery in Lancashire, England. Sadly, it has all come to a most untimely end - but I will never forget the works of "War Artist" Ray Lowry.

Peace, Love, and Crass Art

[ UPDATE - Gee Vaucher's exhibit, Introspective, will be on display in Los Angeles from April 12 through May 3, 2008 at Track 16 Gallery. ]

Mostly known for the remarkable graphics she produced for the late 70’s British anarchist punk band Crass, Gee Vaucher continues to create extraordinarily insightful imagery that strips away society’s veneer to reveal hidden truths. Introspective, her current exhibit at the Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, gives further evidence of her importance as a socially conscious artist for our time. Vaucher’s exhibit opened on Dec. 14, 2007, and surprisingly… San Francisco’s local NBC affiliate dropped-in to cover the opening. Click here to view NBC’s slideshow of the event, which gives a pretty good visual summation of the evening as well as showcasing the quality of Vaucher’s art.

[ Liberty - Gee Vaucher. Gouache and pencil on paper. 2006? ]

Vaucher’s proficiency at drawing serves as the rock solid foundation for her art, and she calls upon traditional skills to create her complex paintings. Even as a young art student, it was clear that Vaucher had a natural talent for figurative realism, but possessing and utilizing time-honored methods does not necessarily lead to conventional artworks - and one would be mistaken to call Vaucher’s works "conservative." Another misjudgment would be to accept the commonly held view of punk aesthetics as minimalist, crude, mindless, and intentionally designed to repulse. Vaucher’s early works for Crass were intellectually sophisticated, technically well crafted, and dare I say - beautiful. Full of narrative and profound meaning, they wielded a social critique as pertinent today as when they first appeared decades ago. If at times Vaucher’s works seem a bit obscure in a surrealist manner, they are always clear in communicating a love of humanity and utter contempt for despotism.

[ Life drawing - Gee Vaucher. Pencil on paper. 1954. Sketch of a live model done in art college. ]

Vaucher visited Los Angeles in 2000 for a limited speaking tour, where I was fortunate enough to exchange a few brief words with her on the subject of art and politics. Many people have assumed that her works were, and are, pure assemblages of photographic materials. As she explained to me, much of her work isn’t photomontage or collage at all - but hand drawn imagery created in pencil and water based gouache paint.

The painting Who Do They Think They’re Fooling? - You?, now on view at the Jack Hanley Gallery, is a perfect example of Vaucher’s didactic method and hyperrealist technique. Created in 1980 as cover art for the 7" Crass single, Bloody Revolutions, Vaucher based her artwork on a famous photo of the Sex Pistols, but the members of the mock band presented in her painting consisted of the Queen of England, Pope John Paul II, the Statue of Liberty, and Margaret Thatcher. If the Pistols were a rock 'n roll swindle, Vaucher was telling us, then the icons in her artwork represented the ultimate ruling class con job.

[ Who Do They Think They’re Fooling? - You? Gee Vaucher. 1980. Gouache and pencil on paper. Cover art for the 7" Crass single, Bloody Revolutions.]

Yo! What Happened to Peace? is a traveling antiwar poster exhibit in which several of my artworks are included, so I’m thrilled to learn that Yo! organizer and curator, John Carr, has arranged a collaboration with Gee Vaucher and the Jack Hanley Gallery. On Jan. 17, 18 and 19, artists from the Yo! project will work in partnership with Gee Vaucher and Penny Rimbaud (also from Crass), to present a Yo! print exhibit and live poster screen printing event at the gallery. Artists involved in the Yo! show will bring their own silkscreens to the gallery, making posters to be given away to guests at the gallery. Some of the artists scheduled to participate in the screen printing event include Winston Smith, Art Hazelwood, Doug Minkler, Eric Drooker, Mear One, Favianna Rodriguez, and a host of others.

Gee Vaucher: Introspective, at the Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, Dec. 14, 2007 through January 19, 2008. The Gallery is located at: 395 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Punk 365: La Luz de Jesus Gallery

La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood hosts a Photo Exhibit, Book Signing and Live Performance for Punk 365, the latest book from music writer Holly George-Warren. With a foreword by L'enfant terrible Richard Hell, the encyclopedic volume traces punk from forerunners like the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, on through originators like the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash - to the punk explosion that occurred in Los Angeles with bands like X, the Germs, and the Screamers. The text is supported by photographs from those intrepid souls who dared to take a camera into the maelstrom; Bob Gruen, Roberta Bayley, Jill Furmanovsky, and Jenny Lens.

[ X - Photo by Jenny Lens 1979 ©. Lens snapped this shot of Exene Cervenka and John Doe of the band X, during a performance at the Stardust Ballroom, August 30, 1979. Captured in the audience is yours truly - I’m wearing the red bandana at the far right of the photo. ]

LA photographer Jenny Lens has twenty four photos published in Punk 365, one of which will be on view at the Hollywood exhibit - her snapshot of LA’s most famous punk band, X. Shot during a raucous live performance at LA’s Stardust Ballroom in 1979, Lens’ photo also happened to captured me in the audience - ah, wild youth.

This special event will also include a live performance by Tony Kinman’s newest outfit, Los Trendy. If you were around in the late 70s you might recall that brothers Chip and Tony Kinman founded the Dils. One of the very first political punk bands to emerge from the US, the Dils opened for the Clash during that band’s debut US tour. The Book Signing, Photo Exhibit, and Live performance will take place on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, from 4 - 8 pm. La Luz de Jesus gallery is located at 4633 Hollywood Blvd. Visit their website for more information.

Sid Vicious & I

I make a short appearance on one of the special features appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of Sid & Nancy, Alex Cox’s movie about British punk rocker Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. In May of 2007, I was asked to appear in the special feature for the MGM movie re-release and contribute my thoughts on Vicious, the Sex Pistols, and the original punk rock explosion. The invitation for me to play a role in the feature documentary was based upon my active participation as an artist in the early Los Angeles punk scene.

[ Kick Boy - Mark Vallen 1979. Acrylic on watercolor paper. Detail from a portrait of Claude Bessy (aka "Kick Boy"), cofounder and editor of L.A.’s Slash magazine. Bessy was depicted wearing a T-shirt sporting a controversial image of Sid Vicious. Click here for a larger view and the story behind this artwork. ]

In my filmed interview I championed punk philosophy and placed it in the context of dissident culture - past, present, and future. I covered everything from rocker Jerry Lee Lewis setting his piano on fire during a concert performance in 1958, to punk’s protest origins and the likelihood of new rebellious cultural eruptions in the future. Unfortunately my inspired rant was edited down to a few minutes worth of sound bites, as the studio wanted to focus on Sid and the movie. My edited remarks were blended into commentary from a handful of music critics and writers, photographers, fans, and assorted misfits, who were all accomplices in the first wave of punk. I’m not at all hesitant to say that the collective voices highlighted in the special feature are no doubt more interesting, informative, and accurate than the movie they are meant to celebrate.

Regrettably, soon after the special feature was completed, I was informed this 30th Anniversary DVD edition of Sid & Nancy would only be obtainable in the United States through Best Buy outlets. The disk will be available in stores this coming October 9th, but you can pre-order the DVD collection directly from the Best Buy website.

Active Resistance to Propaganda

Vivienne Westwood is one of today’s biggest names in the world of fashion design, and her creations have been considered so significant that England’s Victoria & Albert Museum mounted a retrospective of her stunning career in 2004. Westwood began her career as a fashionista in 1971 when she teamed up with Malcolm McLaren (the vainglorious manager of the Sex Pistols), to open a boutique named Let It Rock. The small retail shop specialized in bizarre garments for rock ’n roll misfits, and later renamed Sex, became the hangout for London’s punk scene. The peculiar clothes Westwood created and sold there, slashed T-shirts covered with safety pins, leather fetishware trimmed with metal studs, and tartan bondage outfits with tons of misplaced zippers - came to define the aggressive oddball look of the punk movement.

[ Photograph of Vivienne Westwood in 1977 wearing one of her infamous punk creations - the Destroy T-shirt. Made from muslin cloth and printed in lurid color, the confrontational silk-screened art combined images of an upside down crucifix, a swastika, and a small profile photo of the Queen of England. While misinterpreted by many, the graphic was meant as an angry denunciation of government, religion and fascism. ]

Since those chaotic, nascent days of punk rock, Westwood has moved on to become Britain’s dame of high fashion - although she’s still an iconoclastic rebel at heart. She owns the old shop that once housed Let It Rock, but the space has been transformed into a new boutique called World’s End, where Westwood sells her chic signature line. Currently she has other things on her mind besides runway shows and spring collections, and in an interview with the Guardian she expressed a concern for contemporary art and culture - which she bluntly insists have been "kidnapped by business."

Westwood condemns today’s so-called cutting edge art for being a "sham" devoid of humanity. To her the latest avant-garde conceptual art in galleries and museums is nothing more than "propaganda" meant to buttress a worn out and empty art world. Culture, Westwood tells us, is withering on the vine, and she asks, "how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent." (Listen to an mp3 audio clip of the interview.)

To provoke a discussion on contemporary art and its possible future, Westwood has written Active Resistance to Propaganda, a whimsical yet sober art manifesto that she will publicly present at a literary festival this month in England - here are some excerpts:

"Dear Friends, we all love art and some of you claim to be artists. Without judges there is no art. She only exists when we know her. Does she exist? The answer to this question is of vital importance because if Art is alive the world will change. No art, no progress.

Music has not yet been conceptualised by the art mafia, though they are trying. We do not accept a symphony composed on the remaining three keys of a broken piano, accompanied by the random throwing of marbles at a urinal. Yet its equivalent is the latest thing in the visual arts. (Aren'tya OD'd on the latest thing?) Items selected from real life and set up as art do not represent a view of life. The famous urinal is still a urinal whatever you do with it."

Punk Portraits: L.A. Punk 1977

Punk Portraits is the title I’ve given to an early body of my work documenting the original punk rock explosion in L.A. as it happened. Now that punk is fast approaching the 30th anniversary of its 1977 detonation, I’ve uploaded some additional artworks to my online gallery that serves as a portfolio of artworks from that period. These latest additions include my portraits of Darby Crash, Pat Smear, and Lorna Doom of the Germs, a bleak urban landscape depicting Hollywood Boulevard as it appeared in 1980 near the vicinity of the city’s first punk club, The Masque, as well as one of my favorite drawings from that time, my likeness of Chris D., lead singer for the band, The Flesh Eaters.

[ Darby Crash & Pat Smear - Vallen. Pen on paper, 1979. The Germs were one of L.A.’s most notorious original punk bands, and now the subject of a major motion picture - What We Do Is Secret. In 1979 I made a series of quick sketches of The Germs as they performed in L.A., this particular drawing portrays lead singer Crash, and guitarist, Smear. ]

The Clash London Calling Security Alert

[ London Calling: "Now war is declared, and battle come down." ]

This is getting ridiculous. A man was frog-marched off a London bound airplane flight because he had listened to the song, London Calling, by the legendary punk band, the Clash. 24-year old Harraj Mann took a taxi to Tees Valley International Airport in Northern England, and while in the cab he listened to his own music through the cab’s stereo. He played songs by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Procol Harum - but it was the Clash song that made the taxi driver suspicious. Perhaps the good cabby thought the lyrics were some type of terrorist code - "London Calling to the faraway towns, now war is declared, and battle come down. London Calling to the underworld, come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls." The alert taxi driver reported Mann to airport police, who arrested him and interrogated him for three hours under the Terrorism Act before releasing him.

Now some may say "better safe than sorry," and that the police were correct to have arrested the fellow for listening to "suspicious music," but what message is really being delivered here? Are we really expected to believe that there are certain songs, books, movies and paintings that are "suspicious," and that their enjoyment warrants a visit from the police? The Clash penned another trenchant observation about authoritarian government in their 1978 song, English Civil War. "Who hid a radio under the stairs, an’ who got caught out on their unawares - when that new party army came marching right up the stairs."

Sex Pistols Shove Off Rock Hall of Fame

Furious and snarling, the Sex Pistols exploded onto the world stage in 1977. Their anti-authoritarian stance, expressed in songs like Anarchy in the UK and God Save The Queen, outraged society and turned the music world upside down. As the years passed, more and more people started to recognize how great a rock band the Pistols actually were, and while they’ve been copied by a million others, few have managed to capture that original rebellious spirit. Punk was always much more than a style of music, it was an aggressive stance that demanded a break with the status quo. True to form, the Pistols have once again stormed the world stage, reminding us all that it’s possible to bite the hand that feeds us crap.

[ God Save The Queen. Silkscreen print by Jamie Reid, 1977. This image was one of many created by the artist to help promote the Sex Pistols. A version of this print was published as the cover art for the Pistols’ second single, God Save The Queen. In March of 2001 Reid’s graphic appeared in the book, 100 Best Record Covers Of All Time, where it was proclaimed the "best record cover ever produced."]

After being snubbed for years, the Pistols were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in late 2005, with the band receiving an invitation from the Hall of Fame foundation to attend the March 13th, 2006 induction ceremonies in New York City. As might be expected by anyone familiar with the subversive stance of punk, the band has refused its induction, turning its back on the ceremonies with an impetuously scrawled message to the Hall of Fame foundation. The seething communiqué, full of atrocious spelling and grammatical errors, was posted to the official Sex Pistols website on February 24th, 2006 - it reads as follows:

"Next to the SEX PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. Were not coming. Were not your monkey and so what? Fame at $25,000 if we paid for a table, or $15,000 to squeak up in the gallery, goes to a non-profit organization selling us a load of old famous. Congradulations. If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons.Your anonymous as judges, but your still music industry people. We're not coming.Your not paying attention. Outside the shit-stem is a real SEX PISTOL."

SLASH: Manifesto of Angry Refusal

Slash Magazine of Los Angeles was the first punk publication to emerge on the west coast of the US in 1977. I consider myself fortunate to have worked there for a time, designing pages and graphics and also creating two cover illustrations for the notorious periodical. Slash did more than just challenge the prevailing ideas of the day regarding music, it helped set the standard for the rebellious anti-fashion and visual art that went hand in hand with the punk movement. Slash introduced Americans to bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash, but it also offered the world LA bands like X, Fear, and the Germs. To celebrate Slash Magazine and the defiant role it played in challenging the status quo, I’ve created an online exhibition consisting of several original Slash Magazine covers, along with the editorials written by the magazine’s chief editor and punk’s L'enfant terrible, Claude Bessy - aka Kickboy. On a more personal note, my exhibition of Slash covers and editorials also serves as a memoir of sorts, here’s an excerpt to tantalize you into viewing and reading the entire exhibition:

“While working at Slash Magazine, I crossed paths with a number of artists, writers, musicians, and photographers - but few such encounters could top my being rude to one of the contemporary art world's biggest stars. One day, as I was designing pages for the magazine, Bob Biggs popped in with a disheveled looking blond fellow. I immediately recognized the scruffy fair-haired man, but feigned blankness (not being a fan of the luminary). Claude Bessy had stopped pecking at his typewriter in the adjacent room, no doubt to better overhear something. Biggs stepped up to me with his guest at his side, and with stars in his eyes pronounced, "Mark, I'd like you to meet David Hockney." Barely looking up from my work, I said, "Should I know that name?" Biggs was more embarrassed by my insufferable attitude than was his famed UK artist friend, but the both of them retreated to a friendlier setting. Bessy emerged from his room sniggering and grinning ear to ear after having heard the encounter. I had apparently passed his test of not falling to celebrity worship, and from then on he considered me a friend.” The entire exhibit of original Slash covers and editorials can be viewed at: www.art-for-a-change.com/Punk/papers/slash.htm