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By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2004.11
Since the release of 2000’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” Bono has become fond of telling everyone, from college audiences to television interviewers, that U2 came from punk rock. At the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, The Edge shared his memories of attending a Clash concert with other members of U2 when they were all teenagers.
During the course of U2’s career, however, this link to punk rock hasn’t been totally implicit. The band’s work has spanned from new wave, sort of the poppier kid brother of punk, to classic American rock, taking cues from artists like Bob Dylan. With bands like Green Day and Blink-182 shining new light on the attitude and musicality of the punk movement, the new century seemed like the perfect time for U2 to wallow in its punk roots.
New album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” may just be U2’s punk masterpiece. First single “Vertigo” harkens back to innovators like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols with its chaotic energy, sonic imperfections and brevity. The cover art for the new single, with its stark collage look, also pays homage to the punk movement.
But it’s not only punk that U2 and design firm Four5One is paying tribute to with “Vertigo’s” artwork—consciously or not, this new U2 aesthetic is truly taking its cues from the art of the Russian Revolution.
(Image courtesy U2NewZooland.com)
During the Russian Revolution and early Communist era that followed in the 1910s and ‘20s, artists from a variety of media used their work as propaganda not just for the new government system but also for a new way of life. The political poster is perhaps the better-known art form of this movement, called Constructivism.
“Posters thrived in turbulent times, during revolutions, social changes and wars,” Yevgenia Petrova, deputy director of the State Russian Museum told The St. Petersburg Times. “Because the genre is designed to convince by its nature, it is laconic in form, bright in colors and populist in style.”
To reach an illiterate audience, artists used graphics and photographs to preach their message. According to The St. Petersburg Times, these Russian avant-garde artists were the first to use photographic images in their designs. They also, in the words of The Times, “brought their sharp broken lines and cold aesthetics into the genre.”
(El Lissitzky, Front cover of “Zapiski poeta” Courtesy The Getty Research Institute)
One of the greatest artists of this movement was El Lissitzky, who worked in a variety of media, including book design and architecture. In the late ‘90s, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles ran an exhibit featuring artwork and personal effects from Lissitzky’s life. Of the artist, the institute said, “Lissitzky’s career was deeply marked by the social and political upheavals of the early 20th century. He consistently sought to create bold and powerful artwork that would further the causes in which he believed.”
This desire is not unlike the desire of punks in the 1970s to topple the status quo or the members of U2 to spread the ideals of charity and equality today. Through his black, white and red collage works, Lissitzky explored a variety of societal and cultural issues, from equality to religious freedom. Of his books, one of which was a child’s allegory about the post-revolution new world order, “In contrast to the old monumental art, [the book] itself goes to the people, and does not stand like a cathedral in one place waiting for someone to approach it.”
(The Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols” Courtesy of Amazon.com)
Punk rock of the 1970s was much like that book. This was a movement on the streets and in the shops, reaching beyond music to influence art, fashion and beauty. The Sex Pistols, brought to the forefront by manager Malcolm McLaren, perhaps best embodies that punk spirit with its music, packaging and quick demise.
The cover of the group’s 1977 album “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols” is one of the most famous of the era and is consistently named to lists of the best rock album covers. Designed by Jamie Reid, the cover features the album title in black block letters, the band’s name spelled out in ransom note-like cut out letters, all on a neon background.
“This style is a continuing part of 20th century collage agit-prop art, including early Russian Revolutionary artists, John Hartfield’s anti-Nazi work, various Dadaists/Surrealists sifting into situationism and into punk, to hackers and plunderers on computers and websites,” Reid said in the book “100 Best Album Covers” from Firefly Books.
(Buzzcocks “A Different Kind of Tension” Courtesy of Amazon.com)
In the late ‘70s, the new wave movement began, taking the energy and aesthetic of punk and adding in synthetic bits. The album cover for Buzzcocks’ 1979 release “A Different Kind of Tension,” according to Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, writers of “100 Best Album Covers,” acted as a bridge between the two musical movements. This neon cover features a photograph of the English quartet on a field of geometric shapes.
While Reid saw “Never Mind the Bollocks” taking the mantle of 20th century propaganda art, like that of the Russian revolution, “A Different Kind of Tension” designer Malcolm Garrett was more interested in drawing a direct line.
“The graphic came from Russian Constructivist El Lissitzky; it was him in the day-glo” Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon said in “100 Best Album Covers.” “The lines were construction marks, denoting the center of a circle. The horizontal bars carry information and continue around the spine.”
More than 50 years after his work was first seen in Russia, Lissitzky was influencing a new generation through the Buzzcocks’ cover, whether they knew it or not. With the unveiling of U2’s cover art for “Vertigo,” that influence is being felt once again in the stark black, white and red color scheme, geometric shapes and collage work. Though unlike Lissitzky, U2 is not promoting the virtues of a new world order through “Vertigo’s” cover, the band is talking about a new sort of revolution—the punk rebirth of U2.
Information for this article taken from “Propaganda Posters Revisited as Art” article from The St. Petersburg Times; the Getty Research Institute exhibit “El Lissitzky: Monuments of the Future;” “100 Best Album Covers” from Firefly Books.
Special thanks to Mike Vaney of U2NewZooland for use of the “Vertigo” image.
By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2004.11
Since the release of 2000’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” Bono has become fond of telling everyone, from college audiences to television interviewers, that U2 came from punk rock. At the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, The Edge shared his memories of attending a Clash concert with other members of U2 when they were all teenagers.
During the course of U2’s career, however, this link to punk rock hasn’t been totally implicit. The band’s work has spanned from new wave, sort of the poppier kid brother of punk, to classic American rock, taking cues from artists like Bob Dylan. With bands like Green Day and Blink-182 shining new light on the attitude and musicality of the punk movement, the new century seemed like the perfect time for U2 to wallow in its punk roots.
New album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” may just be U2’s punk masterpiece. First single “Vertigo” harkens back to innovators like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols with its chaotic energy, sonic imperfections and brevity. The cover art for the new single, with its stark collage look, also pays homage to the punk movement.
But it’s not only punk that U2 and design firm Four5One is paying tribute to with “Vertigo’s” artwork—consciously or not, this new U2 aesthetic is truly taking its cues from the art of the Russian Revolution.
(Image courtesy U2NewZooland.com)
During the Russian Revolution and early Communist era that followed in the 1910s and ‘20s, artists from a variety of media used their work as propaganda not just for the new government system but also for a new way of life. The political poster is perhaps the better-known art form of this movement, called Constructivism.
“Posters thrived in turbulent times, during revolutions, social changes and wars,” Yevgenia Petrova, deputy director of the State Russian Museum told The St. Petersburg Times. “Because the genre is designed to convince by its nature, it is laconic in form, bright in colors and populist in style.”
To reach an illiterate audience, artists used graphics and photographs to preach their message. According to The St. Petersburg Times, these Russian avant-garde artists were the first to use photographic images in their designs. They also, in the words of The Times, “brought their sharp broken lines and cold aesthetics into the genre.”
(El Lissitzky, Front cover of “Zapiski poeta” Courtesy The Getty Research Institute)
One of the greatest artists of this movement was El Lissitzky, who worked in a variety of media, including book design and architecture. In the late ‘90s, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles ran an exhibit featuring artwork and personal effects from Lissitzky’s life. Of the artist, the institute said, “Lissitzky’s career was deeply marked by the social and political upheavals of the early 20th century. He consistently sought to create bold and powerful artwork that would further the causes in which he believed.”
This desire is not unlike the desire of punks in the 1970s to topple the status quo or the members of U2 to spread the ideals of charity and equality today. Through his black, white and red collage works, Lissitzky explored a variety of societal and cultural issues, from equality to religious freedom. Of his books, one of which was a child’s allegory about the post-revolution new world order, “In contrast to the old monumental art, [the book] itself goes to the people, and does not stand like a cathedral in one place waiting for someone to approach it.”
(The Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols” Courtesy of Amazon.com)
Punk rock of the 1970s was much like that book. This was a movement on the streets and in the shops, reaching beyond music to influence art, fashion and beauty. The Sex Pistols, brought to the forefront by manager Malcolm McLaren, perhaps best embodies that punk spirit with its music, packaging and quick demise.
The cover of the group’s 1977 album “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols” is one of the most famous of the era and is consistently named to lists of the best rock album covers. Designed by Jamie Reid, the cover features the album title in black block letters, the band’s name spelled out in ransom note-like cut out letters, all on a neon background.
“This style is a continuing part of 20th century collage agit-prop art, including early Russian Revolutionary artists, John Hartfield’s anti-Nazi work, various Dadaists/Surrealists sifting into situationism and into punk, to hackers and plunderers on computers and websites,” Reid said in the book “100 Best Album Covers” from Firefly Books.
(Buzzcocks “A Different Kind of Tension” Courtesy of Amazon.com)
In the late ‘70s, the new wave movement began, taking the energy and aesthetic of punk and adding in synthetic bits. The album cover for Buzzcocks’ 1979 release “A Different Kind of Tension,” according to Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, writers of “100 Best Album Covers,” acted as a bridge between the two musical movements. This neon cover features a photograph of the English quartet on a field of geometric shapes.
While Reid saw “Never Mind the Bollocks” taking the mantle of 20th century propaganda art, like that of the Russian revolution, “A Different Kind of Tension” designer Malcolm Garrett was more interested in drawing a direct line.
“The graphic came from Russian Constructivist El Lissitzky; it was him in the day-glo” Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon said in “100 Best Album Covers.” “The lines were construction marks, denoting the center of a circle. The horizontal bars carry information and continue around the spine.”
More than 50 years after his work was first seen in Russia, Lissitzky was influencing a new generation through the Buzzcocks’ cover, whether they knew it or not. With the unveiling of U2’s cover art for “Vertigo,” that influence is being felt once again in the stark black, white and red color scheme, geometric shapes and collage work. Though unlike Lissitzky, U2 is not promoting the virtues of a new world order through “Vertigo’s” cover, the band is talking about a new sort of revolution—the punk rebirth of U2.
Information for this article taken from “Propaganda Posters Revisited as Art” article from The St. Petersburg Times; the Getty Research Institute exhibit “El Lissitzky: Monuments of the Future;” “100 Best Album Covers” from Firefly Books.
Special thanks to Mike Vaney of U2NewZooland for use of the “Vertigo” image.
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