‘Exhibitionism’: Inside Massive New Rolling Stones Exhibit in London

The Rolling Stones have been the subjects of documentaries, concert films and books, but with the recent London opening of an exhibit of their vast personal archive, the band is finally getting the museum-exhibit treatment. Spread out over two floors and nine galleries at the Saatchi Gallery, Exhibitionism crams in much of what any Stones fan would want to see: stage clothing, guitars and other gear, displays of classic album cover art and tour posters and the history of their legendary “lips” logo.

But the exhibit – which is arranged by theme rather than by a timeline – has plenty of other surprises: recreations of the first apartment the band shared and a typical backstage area, a video and movie gallery that includes a portion of the infamous Cocksucker Blues, and even 3D concert footage. Curator Ileen Gallagher takes RS on a tour of the inner workings of Exhibitionism – which is said to be coming to other cities, including New York, in the future.      

This exhibit is pretty huge and complex. How long has it been in the works?
About three years ago, IEC, a production company out of Australia that had started getting into the traveling exhibition business, approached the Rolling Stones. It was the right moment for the Stones and their career, and they realized this is a great opportunity to get in front of their fans in a different sort of way. They had discussions and came up with the basic narrative structure.

What was that narrative?
The band was interested in doing something thematic that really wasn’t a chronological presentation, for obvious reasons. When you begin in the Sixties and you’ve been going for over 50 years, it kind of has this crescendo and then this downward slope [Laughs]. They wanted their career to be explored thematically, and I think that was definitely the right decision. It allows you to kind of explore these rich topics and their history very cohesively.

Tell us about the Stones’ own archive. Where is it?
It’s a warehouse in London. I’m bad at [measurements], but it’s maybe 10,000 square feet. About two thirds of the exhibit came from that. It’s climate controlled and there’s a clothing area, an instrument area, a tape area, a film area. There’s just so much. When we were going through things, we found these lyric books of Mick’s from the Some Girls era. It was really a great discovery.

We also went to some primary collectors who collect Stones memorabilia and material. The band doesn’t have anything before 1972. When you’re a young band, you have no idea of what your future is going to be. You don’t necessarily think these things are important or of significance. So they just didn’t think it was important [to save materials in the early days], you know? Obviously, in retrospect, that was foolish.

They did keep some guitars and instruments from their earlier years, but that was kind of it. And Mick was very good at keeping his clothing. I can’t say that for the other men in the band. Bill Wyman apparently collected a lot. We borrowed some items from him, like the outfit he wore in Hyde Park and his first amp. As legend goes, that’s the one he used for his audition with the Stones. He also donated one of Brian Jones’ guitars.