Lou Reed exhibition coming to NYPL June 9, 2022 to March 4, 2023

[hkmartin]

https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/lou-reed

In 2022, which would have been the year of Lou Reed's 80th birthday, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center will mount Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars, the first large-scale exhibition featuring previously unseen and unheard work from Reed’s incredible archive.

Caught Between the Twisted Stars, a lyric from "Romeo Had Juliette" from Reed's New York, will chronicle the life's work of a prolific and uncompromising artist—songwriter, musician, performer, photographer, poet, accomplished tai chi practitioner—a story told through the voices, images, and music of Reed and his collaborators, including artists Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol, and Robert Wilson; musicians Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, John Cale, Garland Jeffreys, Metallica, Sterling Morrison, Robert Quine, Mike Rathke, Fernando Saunders, and Maureen Tucker; manager Sylvia Reed; producer Hal Willner; photographers Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Billy Name, and Mick Rock; poets Jim Carroll, Allen Ginsberg, Delmore Schwartz, and Anne Waldman; president Václav Havel; songwriter Doc Pomus; and tai chi master Ren Guangyi.

The exhibition is curated by Don Fleming and Jason Stern. Fleming served as the archivist for the Lou Reed Archive, and Stern as Reed's Technical Director and Archivist during the artist's lifetime.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Music & Recorded Sound Division acquired Lou Reed's archive in 2017.

[hkmartin]

Article from NY Times on the exhibit. May be behind paywall, though I think there's a certain number of free articles per month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/arts ... stars.html

I thought this was interesting:

Just last month, Fleming and Stern realized they had misdated a tape labeled “Electric Rock Symphony,” assuming it was a 1970s demo for “Metal Machine Music.” After examining the tape further, and comparing its audio to that of others in the collection, they now believe it was made in 1966, or possibly 1965, a sign of how long the “Metal Machine” technique — feedback-driven guitar drones, adapted from the composer La Monte Young — had gestated.

I'd listened to this tape last time I was at the library. It's all guitar noodling, but surprisingly listenable. I'd also assumed it was a precursor to MMM, before the tracks were sped up and multi-tracked.

[mangue]

https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/lou-reed

In 2022, which would have been the year of Lou Reed's 80th birthday, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center will mount Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars, the first large-scale exhibition featuring previously unseen and unheard work from Reed’s incredible archive.

Caught Between the Twisted Stars, a lyric from "Romeo Had Juliette" from Reed's New York, ...

This made me remember that in the early 1990s I visited a museum in Oostende, Belgium for a special exhibition about surrealism. After having seen that I checked out the rest of the museum, one work caught my special attention because there was had good music, the very "Romeo Had Juliette". It was an art construction put together from all sorts of very colourful items [incl.a bass drum?], it had a button upfront, with which the music could be started.
I spoke with a worker in the museum, and she said it was her favourite piece and each morning she started work by pushing the button to hear the music. I haven't been back in that museum since, but I think the work was by a local artist and called "Dirty Boulevard".
I think somehwere I have pictures from it and if I find them [in one of the many boxes after moving...] will upload/link the best one here.

Anybody here ever visited that museum in Oostende and seen/heard that artwork?


PS: I have never been, nor will soon visit, NY so unfortunately will not be able to visit this new exhibition.