SMU's Punk and Post-Punk Art and Fashion Exhibition To Showcase Buzzcocks Designer Malcolm Garrett

When punk supposedly “died,” it imparted new life into its sister genre, post-punk, which has its own derivative forms, including new wave and goth. These are ultimately meaningless distinctions, but they speak to a larger culture that thrived in the 1970s and '80s. In punk and post-punk was a nexus between music (obviously), visual art, fashion and philosophy. And in many ways, it shaped pop culture and the American experience.

The remnants and documentation of this proud and vibrant culture will be on display at Southern Methodist University starting this week. Torn Apart, the self-described largest exhibition of punk, post-punk and new-wave relics, opens on Thursday, Feb. 8, at the campus’s Hamon Arts Library, with a panel moderated by Michael Worthington.

The following evening’s reception will include a speech by none other than Malcolm Garrett, famed British graphic designer whose most notable work includes art for the controversial Buzzcocks single “Orgasm Addict.” Garrett  was bestowed the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2020 for his formidable achievements in this field.

“I think it’s a given that there’s going to be a great deal of interest from the community,” says Jolene de Verges, the director of the Hamon Arts Library. “It’s a pretty ambitious exhibition. We put a lot of work and resources in it.”

Indeed, as this interview was being conducted in the university library, de Verges and Assistant Director Beverly Mitchell guided us past a cargo-grade shipping container that contained the art pieces and artifacts. Mitchell says the scale of this is truly unprecedented in the history of the school's exhibitions in the library.

“We’ve worked with fine arts shippers before, but this one is significant in terms of the number of objects,” she says. “For example, the last exhibition we did in the fall, there were 15 drawings. And, of course, this one, there’s hundreds and hundreds of objects in it.” That is hardly surprising, considering the do-it-yourself ethics on which punk rock was founded. The ephemera on display for this exhibition include a punk fanzine autographed by each member of the Ramones; a gig poster for a Hazel O’Connor and Duran Duran show at England’s Lancaster University; and promotional art for Richard Hell & the Voivoids’ Blank Generation, the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks and Alternative TV’s The Image Has Cracked.

Most of the objects are on loan from the collection Andrew Krivine — punk scholar and author of Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die — whose relative, John Krivine, approached the museum organizers. There is also a DEVO postcard, an X-Ray Spex gig poster and a DIY t-shirt with ransom note typeface that reads in part, “We’re the 1% who don’t fit & don’t care.”

As such descriptions suggest, much of this exhibition will allow spectators to listen through the eyes.

“It’s going to be very impactful, visually,” Mitchell says.

“I don’t think anything like this has ever really been done [in Dallas],” de Verges adds. “We’re an educational institution, and our gallery has a mission to connect with the curriculum here. So we have a fashion media program in Meadows, a degree that students can earn in journalism from fashion media, advertising, graphic design, art …”

Torn Apart: Punk + New Wave Graphics, Fashion and Culture, 1976–86 runs from Feb. 8 through May 10 at SMU’s Hamon Arts Library, 6100 Hillcrest Ave. The exhibition will be open Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon – 5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon – 10 p.m. More information can be found online on SMU's website.