Thursday, June 11, 2009

Transformative




The issue of what's "transformative" when an artist "borrows" a photo-
graph is much in the news these days. But here's the latest addition to my personal art collection - I just got an artist's proof of Jamie Reid's famous poster for the Sex Pistols. It's the sheer vitality of the picture I love, while 32 years on, what was shocking and offensive is now kind of cute. I don't know who took the original picture of the Queen. It looks very official so maybe someone can help out. As always it would be nice to credit the photographer. But by defacing the image with ransom note type lettering and placing it in the middle of the Union Jack I think Reid did achieve "transformation".

3 comments:

Fredde Ahlstrom said...

I keep thinking of "Objet trouvé", Found Art or Readymades.

Anyway;
"The original image of Queen Elizabeth II is an official 1977 Silver Jubilee portrait by Royal photographer Peter Grugeon. Several variations of Sex Pistols God Save The Queen artwork exist, most notably the following..."

http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com/index.php?module=features&features_item_id=151

John MacDonald said...

The original image of Queen Elizabeth II is an official 1977 Silver Jubilee portrait by Royal photographer Peter Grugeon.

Source: http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com/index.php?module=features&features_item_id=151

Deafkid said...

I love this poster. It's probably the one thing I would choose to represent the punk movement.