SEX PISTOLS Album Artist JAMIE REID Dead At 76

Jamie Reid, the artist and graphic designer whose collage work for the Sex Pistols was a central pillar of the punk aesthetic, has died aged 76, reports The Guardian.

His gallerist John Marchant confirmed his death alongside Reid’s family. In a statement he was described as an “artist, iconoclast, anarchist, punk, hippie, rebel and romantic. Jamie leaves behind a beloved daughter Rowan, a granddaughter Rose, and an enormous legacy.”

Born in London in 1947, Reid enrolled at Wimbledon Art School aged 16, later moving to Croydon Art School where he met Sex Pistols’ future manager Malcolm McLaren.

Reid’s best known work was for the covers of a series of Sex Pistols releases: the pink and yellow text of their only album Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols; "God Save The Queen", the hit single banned by the BBC featuring a Peter Grugeon portrait of Queen Elizabeth II defaced by Reid; the smashed empty picture frame for "Pretty Vacant"; and a doctored comic strip for "Holidays In The Sun".

His poster for the single "Anarchy In The UK", featuring a torn union jack, was another image that defined the iconoclasm of the punk era. He also created numerous alternative designs for singles – one for "God Save the Queen" features a safety pin through the Queen’s lip plus swastikas for eyes, while an alternative French-market cover for "Pretty Vacant" featured buses showing the destinations Nowhere and Boredom. Reid also worked on imagery for the Sex Pistols film, The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle.

Read more at The Guardian.