costume design for Oliver Twist; illustration of a man in orange trousers and blazer

Vincente Minnelli’s Oliver costume design for Oliver Twist

A painting of a woman outlined in green and surrounded by the arc of the orange scarf she holds as she begins to ascend a red staircase. She wears a spiky crown and a stylized, angular dress composed of many rectangles in shades of gray and blue

Alexandra Exter’s costume design for Salomé

three panels featuring Lou Reed in black and white portrait in the center; surrounded by two gold panels with cut out text

Photo © Mick Rock 1972, 2019. Photograph by Robert Kato

Mick Rock (1948–2021)
Mock-up for Lou Reed’s Transformer
ca. 1972
Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center

Mock-up for Lou Reed’s Transformer

The iconic rock photographer Mick Rock designed this record jacket using his most famous shot of singer and songwriter Lou Reed (1942–2013). The photo, which went out of focus during development in the darkroom, struck both Rock and Reed as an ideal cover image for Reed’s landmark solo album, Transformer (1972). The design exemplifies the synthesis of careful planning and happy accident that so often define the most enduring artistic expressions, although the special seven-inch record for which it was prepared was never released. This extraordinary artifact came to the Library as part of the Lou Reed Archive, which the Library acquired in 2017.

Holding Division: Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy an…

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