Jorge Lewinski’s photograph of Pauline Boty has been chosen by the latest issue of The Herald Magazine with a brief biography of her to illustrate their book review of London’s New Scene: Art and Culture in the 1960s [see News item, 12 May].
The review notes “Pauline Boty is one of the great what-ifs of the 1960s. What might she have gone on to do if she hadn’t died of cancer in 1966, aged just 28? She packed plenty into her short life as it was. Actor, broadcaster, proto-feminist, regular dancer on Ready Steady Go and, of course, the only British pop artist to be a woman.
Boty’s good looks and whirlwind energy marked her out as a very 1960s creature (she may have been the inspiration for Julie Christie’s character in the film version of Billy Liar). The truth is she also suffered from bouts of depression and had to deal with the casual sexism of the age. Her lasting legacy is the vibrancy and the immediacy of her art.
Boty is just one of the artists whose work features in Lisa Tickner’s comprehensive survey of the burgeoning art scene in London 60 years ago, taking in everyone from Gilbert & George to David Hockney.”
The Herald newspaper’s homepage is here: [link]
Pauline Boty 