I don’t wanna hard sell this – but when you think of public figures who normalized the use of hard drugs, extra-marital sex, pursuit of extreme personal freedoms and Gay lifestyle Lou Reed only runs a close second to the Prophet of the Lovely Star in the popular imagination. Ergo. I think this exhibition assembled from his personal archives as well as material borrowed from other collections could be of interest to those who live in NYC or are visiting between now and March 2023. The posted description says:
“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 from Reed’s archive. The exhibition will display the life and work of the icon whose profound influence—musically, visually, and culturally—still affects a range of artists and writers today.
“Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars, taken from a lyric from “Romeo Had Juliette” from Reed’s solo album, New York, will present previously unseen and unheard work of a prolific and uncompromising artist—songwriter, musician, performer, poet, photographer, and tai chi practitioner. The story is told through the voices, images, and music of Reed’s music projects; through his performances and theatre works; the articles, books, and poems that he authored; his own photography; and his personal tai chi studies.
“The show will pay tribute to the many friends and collaborators whom he influenced and who, in turn, shaped his own music, 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; former Czech Republic president Václav Havel; songwriter Doc Pomus; and tai chi Grandmaster 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.”
For more info and details on the myriad features of this exhibit (including rotating installations in their Sound Gallery) visit:
I met Lou a few times, he was a very calm quiet and sensitive old soul.. not at all the miserable arrogant prick history is trying to paint him out to be, far from it.