Rarely seen images from the 1988 Malcolm McLaren exhibition Impresario with news that my MM bio will be published in April 2020
//Window display for Impresario at the New Museum, Sept 16 – Nov 20, 1988. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
//Introduction to the show. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
My biography of the late Malcolm McLaren will now be published in April 2020, exactly 10 years after his premature death at the age of 64.
The book was slated to appear this autumn, but I need more time to ensure that it covers all the bases in the life of this extraordinary fellow, whose forays and collaborations in advertising, environments, fashion and graphic design, film, installations, interiors, lectures, media, music, painting and much more “challenged and ultimately expanded our accepted notions of what constitutes art”.
//McLaren at the Impresario preview, Sept 14, 1988. Image: Catherine McGann – catherinemcgann.photoshelter.com//
//Blow-ups of the Sex Pistols with t-shirt designs from Let It Rock, Sex and Seditionaries. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
Here I’m paraphrasing Marcia Tucker and William Olander, who were principals at New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art when it staged the exhibition Impresario: Malcolm McLaren & The British New Wave in the autumn of 1988.
//From the cover of a booklet accompanying a 2012 symposium on Paul Taylor at Monash University Museum Of Art in Melbourne//
That show was curated by another astounding figure, the Australian writer and critic Paul Taylor, who achieved much – including the launch of the important journal Art & Text – in his short life.
//Flying mannequins in designs created by McLaren with Vivienne Westwood for Sex and Seditionaries. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
//The mannequins overlooking the premises at 430 King’s Road where McLaren and Westwood collaborated 1972 – 84. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
As you can see from this selection from the New Museum’s digital archive, the exhibition was stunningly put together (and beat the pants off subsequent attempts to present punk and related artefacts by major international institutions).
//Adam Ant’s early 80s look which was inspired by McLaren’s researches into Native American and Pirate modes of dress. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
///Examples of the collaborations with Keith Haring for the 1983 Witches collection. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//
I’ve interviewed friends and colleagues of Taylor as well as contributors to the show and attendees. I also have McLaren’s thoughts on Impresario, which was prescient by about three decades in its recognition of his wider significance and cultural contributions.
Read the New York Times obituary for Paul Taylor here.
Malcolm McLaren: The Biography is to be published by Constable & Robinson in April 2020.