Here\'s the exhibit; New York showcases art of punk rock

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: When punk is done well, it becomes the establishment it once railed against - and a generation after the glory of the punk rock era, The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York is paying tribute to the giants of punk, including the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Patti Smith, and all the rest with a new exhibit.

The museum's exhibit, "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: Punk Graphics, 1976-1986...," explores the punk and post-punk movements through the lens of graphic design," in the words of the museum.

Inside the exhibit are more than 400 of punk rock's most memorable graphics, including flyers, posters, album covers, promotions, zines, and other ephemera.

The important thing is is that really designed the punk design changed everything.

The idea the typography, appropriation, collage and parody are very important for the for the punk period." And perhaps nothing quite defines punk rock like the music and songs from the Sex Pistols.

The British band famously covered up the eyes of Queen Elizabeth II on posters for their song, "God Save The Queen," which was released the year of her silver Jubilee, 1977.

The band's front man, John Lydon, aka "Johnny Rotten," was on hand at the museum to give a tour to Reuters Monday (April 16).

He expressed a dim view of being knighted one day, but made clear he would agree with any punk honorifics.

"If I didn't join that band called 'The Sex Pistols,' none of this would now be here, because we were the most serious and the most honest.

The most direct and the first," he said.

The man behind the album, "Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols," went on to sum up his view of punk.

"No, you don't want to do it just to shock.

There's a little bit more to it than that," he said.

"Make your words mean something or don't bother," adding, "if you've got nothing to communicate then you're a thief." The exhibit previously appeared last summer and fall at Michigan's Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills.

Its art is culled from the collection of New York-based Andrew Krivine.

And in speaking to the online arts magazine, Hyperallergic.com, Krivine said the exhibit's contents are organized thematically, with sections "on appropriation and on collage, with examples of parody and pastiche as rhetorical strategies." Or as MAD puts it, "the works on view move from the sobriety of a stripped-down, black-and-white minimalism to the expansive color palettes and expressive forms of New Wave graphics." Indeed, seeing as the exhibit is coming to New York - a Mecca of punk - the show makes sure to pay tribute.

And so posters are featured that promoted shows at CBGB's, the legendary downtown Manhattan music club that opened in 1973 and closed in 2006.

Among the bands that made the venue famous include the Ramones, Patti Smith and Blondie.

The exhibit will run until July 11.

(Production: Dan Fastenberg, Aron Ranen)