Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago recently closed Sympathy for the Devil, an exhibition on art and rock ‘n’ roll. The exhibition starts in 1967, the year when Andy Warhol began collaborating with The Velvet Underground, The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience released Are You Experienced. Along with the time frame, curator Dominic Molon placed parameters on what was to be included in the show, with an emphasis on the “art works themselves” instead of the aesthetics of record covers, club flyers, posters, and T-shirts we more comfortably relate to rock music.

Molon states, “Rock music’s cultivation of avant-garde tendencies, tropes, and processes elevates it in terms of its aesthetics and ability to express ideas or explore new sounds in a more sophisticated manner, while running the risk of courting pretentiousness in an art form that, at its best, operates with a primal sense of irreverence.”

The book that accompanies the show attempts to map out the relationship of art and rock across the US and world through essays and artwork. The essays range from the dry and scholarly to the repetitive (Richard Hell on CBGBs) to the absolutely entertaining (Bob Nickas recounting his first concert: Black Sabbath in 1971, performing a benefit show for his Boy Scout troop at the Methodist Church in New Jersey). The book shines with its artwork, offering a calculated collection of badass works to counterbalance the pretentiousness.

– Chris Force

Christian Marclay, David Bowie (from the series “Body Mix”), record covers from cotton thread, 29.5″ x 13.25″, 1991, collection of Steven Johnson and Walter Sudol, New York

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Fight for freedom!), pen and ink on paper, 8.5″ x 11″, 1981, courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967
Dominic Molon, et al.
Hardcover, 288 Pages, $50, Yale University Press