Out On Display #17: Lou Reed


Furniture, Textiles & Fashion
May 6, 2015

CIS:S.4338-1995

 

Lou Reed in Concert

Poster, offset lithograph

Blue Egg Printing and Design Ltd.

Great Britain, 1973

Given by Publicity and Display Ltd.

S.4338-1995

On display in room 106B

 

This signature image of Lou Reed (1942 – 2013) was first used as the cover of his solo album Transformer (1972). It is reused here to promote the tour of his follow-up album, Berlin (1973).

Picture4
The album cover designs used for Transformer and Berlin

Aged 14, Reed was confined to an institution where he endured electric shock treatment to ‘cure’ him of supposed homosexual tendencies.

Following university, he gravitated to New York where he fell into Andy Warhol’s liberated Factory scene as frontman of pioneering rock group, The Velvet Underground – their name lifted from the title of a book exploring so-called deviant sexuality in 1963.

The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh, New York: MacFadden, 1963.
The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh, New York: MacFadden, 1963.

The Factory was bursting at the seams with revolutionary figures in gay and trans* liberation, including Holly Woodlawn, Penny Arcade, and Candy Darling. Reed was known for surrounding himself with drag queens and transgendered people and had a seminal relationship with a trans* woman called Rachel Humphreys, who accompanied him on tour and appears in his lyrics and album artwork during the mid-1970s.

Portraits of Lou and Rachel taken by photographer Mick Rock. Taken from Skipthemakeup.
Portrait of Lou and Rachel taken by Mick Rock. Taken from Skipthemakeup

Through his songs, Reed helped bring diverse characters into the mainstream consciousness, with ‘Candy Says’, ‘Sister Ray’, ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation’, and most famously ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, all having overtly queer, illuminating lyrics.

About the author


Furniture, Textiles & Fashion
May 6, 2015

I am an Assistant Curator working on the development of the new Europe 1600-1800 Galleries. My interests are wide-ranging but subjects I have particularly enjoyed exploring for this project include:...

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