Luncheon on the Grass with Manet and Bow Wow Wow Still disturbing after all these years CHAPMAN, Ian

RESUMEN: In 1981, "New Tribalist" band, Bow Wow Wow released their debut album, See Jungle! See Jungle!Go join Your Gang, Yeah! City All Over! Go Ape Crazy. The cover was an elaborately staged photographic reenactment of Manet's 1863 work, Le Déjeneur sur l'herbe, and featured the band members posed in the place of Manet's subjects. The cover caused outrage because the band's lead singer, fifteen-year old Annabelle Lwin, was pictured naked amidst her clothed male band-mates. An examination of other album covers by the band around this time, in conjunction with lyric analysis and consideration of manager Malcolm McLaren's stated intentions and other artistic and commercial interests, show that underage and early teenage sexuality was a central component of the band's artistic raison d'etre. This paper examine how McLaren utilized provocation based upon moral/sexual themes in his fashioning and promotion of Bow Wow Wow. Focussing primarily upon their controversial first album, comparisons are drawn between the reception of the Manet work in 1863 and other historic works that McLaren, a mal well-schooled in art history, deliberately referenced during the time he managed Bow Wow Wow. Despite the passing of more than a century between Manet's work and McLaren's parody, I contend that the nature of the provocation, and the critical reaction that ensued following the presentation of each work, is of a similar nature and that McLaren almost certaintly intended this thematic alliance.