Pooja Desai

Greenwich Village History Blog

Evernote

Digital Archive

This digital archive will collect examples of punk and alternative art, style, and visual culture from the 1970s-80s. The archive, like its subject, will be collage-like and at times artfully haphazard in appearance, consisting of various types of visual art — including album artwork, zines, graffiti, and concert flyers — as well as photography, both old and new, which demonstrates the myriad styles that constitute punk fashion and aesthetics.

Related links:
http://www.98bowery.com/punkyears/punk-art-catalogue.php

Web Exhibit

As America's early punk music scene, born in late 1970s New York City, began to define itself musically, a distinct visual style developed alongside the music which became apparent in everything ranging from album art to the fashion of those who chose to associate themselves with the scene. In Greenwich Village in particular, a number of visual artists involved in the local art scene also found a place for themselves in the punk rock scene. This exhibit will examine the development of punk visual culture during the early years of the scene in the 1970s and early 1980s. By collecting and analyzing things like album art, zines, and fashion photography associated with the genre, this exhibit will attempt to define (so much as one can define) what exactly punk style is. This exhibit will also examine the ways in which the scene's visual style worked in conjunction with the music to shape punk into a distinct subculture and create a now-iconic aesthetic which is still easily observable in the present day.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License