Punk ~ The Transatlantic Paintings Exhibition

What’s in a number? “Punk – ‘The Transatlantic Paintings” is an exhibition to mark the period around that mid 70’s axis. – 1975/76 – that saw the birth of a new movement, Punk. This is a movement which arrived without warning, and almost simultaneously both in the UK and the USA..

Whilst there was a slow burn of activity on both sides of the Atlantic from the late sixties to the mid seventies, particularly in the US, a change happened almost overnight under it’s own momentum, and with no apparent isolated contributing factor. There was a rapid and radical headlong rush into 1977, this was the year that saw a punk explosion.

A fusion of garage rock ‘n’ roll, a chaotic but directional energy and teenage angst. Punk gathered critical support overnight and took both nations, and then the rest of the world, by storm, with its rebellious attitude, anti-establishment stance, iconic music, fashion and art – all wrapped in threatening visual imagery and language.

Punk The Transatlantic Paintings ~ Chris Billington at The Gallery, Liverpool

Fifteen months in the making, my idea of “Punk ~ The Transatlantic Paintings” was formed in late 2012. There were to be 40 paintings – to mark the 40 years, but even though that initial 40 concentrated the mind I soon found that it was near impossible for me to stick within my own remit.

So I revised the number upwards to 45, a nice number anyway, and quite fitting seeing as the exhibition has an almost exclusive focus on that ubiquitous punk symbol, the vinyl 45, which with it’s short, shock blasts of energy made it the antithesis of the meandering self indulgent album that had become the norm by bands in the mid seventies..

Almost half a century after the event, “Punk ~ The Transatlantic Paintings” is my take on Punk.

The exhibition is showing in The Gallery, Liverpool this month and at Studio 2091 in Ohio in 2015. It is dedicated to the 45 single, and the 45 bands that I feature in the exhibition, also the late John Peel and the great independent record labels and stores who went against convention, and not forgetting the 500+ bands that I couldn’t cover for obvious reasons.

There is a limited edition 48 page catalogue to accompany the exhibition and a book is planned in ate 2015.

‘Punk ~ The Transatlantic Paintings’