Gazelli Art House to include Pauline Boty works at Dallas Art Fair 2025

Pauline Boty, “Untitled (red yellow blue abstract”), 1961, Oil on board. Photo by paulineboty.org

Dallas Art Fair 2025 will run from 10 – 13 April at the Fashion Industry Gallery in the Dallas Arts District. Gazelli Art House (Booth A5) have announced the following about their attendance:

”Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Harold Cohen and Jann Haworth: Gazelli Art House is delighted to announce its debut at the Dallas Art Fair 2025, presenting a selection of works by pioneering artists Derek Boshier (1937—2024), Pauline Boty (1938—1966), Harold Cohen (1928—2016) and Jann Haworth (b. 1942). The artworks brought together highlight the importance of Dallas and Texas in the careers of major British Post-War artists—with some of them having lived there, while others were exhibited and collected by major Texan institutions.

Central to the selection will be Post-War AI pioneer Harold Cohen’s rarely exhibited large-scale figurative paintings, presented alongside early AARON drawings and a work from his Painting Machine series. These works offer a unique perspective on Cohen’s groundbreaking fusion of art and code, tracing his transition from traditional painting to computational creativity. Developed in the 1970s at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, AARON is one of the earliest AI programs for autonomous art-making, capable of making intricate compositions without direct human intervention. Cohen’s research into machine-generated imagery established him as a foundational figure in generative art, influencing subsequent waves of artists working at the intersection of technology and aesthetics. His legacy continues to shape contemporary digital art, with recent institutional recognition including exhibitions at LACMA, the Whitney Museum, and Tate Modern’s Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet (On view until June 2025).

An intimate selection of works by Derek Boshier also features. Taken from his Texas series, painted during his years living in Houston in the 1980s and early 1990s, these include pieces such as Fashion Victim in the Snow (1987) and Sea Visitor (Boat) (1987) which reflect Boshier’s engagement with pop culture iconography, filtered through his sharp wit and European perspective. The thick impasto and exaggerated gestures create a sense of both physical and conceptual tension, and are indicative of Boshier’s critical yet playful commentary on identity, spectacle, and cultural mythmaking.

Pauline Boty, “Untitled (red yellow blue abstract”), [detail], 1961, Oil on board. Photo by paulineboty.org

Pauline Boty’s Untitled (Red Yellow Blue Abstract) (1961) is one of only four abstract paintings the charismatic artist made in a career that was tragically cut short at the age of 28. Executed just after her graduation from the Royal College of Art, the work captures the dynamism of the Swinging Sixties through its bold colour interplay and shows a dialogue with the work of friends and peers such as David Hockney and Derek Boshier. Complementing this is Boty’s rarely exhibited portrait of mafia boss Big Jim Colosimo (c.1963), rendered in her signature photorealistic black-and-white style and framed within a playful fairground-inspired border. The resurgence of interest in Pauline Boty’s work is evident in exhibitions such as Pauline Boty, A Portrait at Gazelli Art House (2023/4), Capturing the Moment at Tate Modern (2023), and the landmark solo show Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (2013), reaffirming her significance within the Pop Art movement and beyond.

Pauline Boty, “Big Jim Colosimo”, Oil on canvas, 1963

The booth will also showcase several key works by Pop Art icon Jann Haworth, including the delicate work on paper The Bead (1964), a study for her celebrated Beads and Background (1963—64) sculpture, which is in the collection of Tate. Alongside this will sit an early ‘soft sculpture’ piece titled Dog (1962), first exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1963. Haworth’s works during this period recontextualised craft as a means of challenging the masculine aesthetics of the Pop Art movement. Throughout the 1960s, she developed a series of cloth-based works which disrupted and complicated depictions of the female form in much of the art of the time, positioning her among the leading figures of British Pop alongside Richard Hamilton and her then-husband, Peter Blake. Haworth’s impact on contemporary art continues to be recognised globally, with several major institutional exhibitions currently on view. Pop Forever at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Counterpoint at the BYU Museum of Art in Utah, Pattern: Rhythm and Repetition at Pallant House Gallery in the UK, Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol at the Holburne Museum, UK, and Mapping the 60s at mumok, Austria all prominently feature her work. Earlier this year she presented her Work in Progress mural—co-created with collage artist Liberty Blake—as part of the Arts and Culture Programme at the World Economic Forum in Davos, reinforcing her ongoing engagement with themes of representation and social history.

Marking an exciting milestone for Gazelli Art House, this inaugural participation at Dallas Art Fair underscores the gallery’s commitment to championing artists who have challenged artistic boundaries and shaped contemporary discourse from the 1960s to the present day.”
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Further information

DALLAS ART FAIR
October 9 – 13 2024
Fashion Industry Gallery,
1807 Ross Avenue,
Dallas, Texas 75201
Dallas Art Fair website: [link]
Tickets are available to buy here: [link]

Gazell Art House,
39 Dover Street,
London W1S 4NN
Tel: +44 207 491 8816
Gallery website: [link]

New book “What Art Can Tell Us About Love” includes Pauline Boty and Peter Blake

“What Art Can Tell Us About Love” by Nick Trend, published by Laurence King

Written by Nick Trend, publisher Laurence King describes the new book as follows: Whether in the throes of passion, enduring the pain of an unrequited love or basking in the joy of a wonderfully supportive friendship, this book explores how love influenced artists and the work they created.

Beautifully illustrated with full-colour photographs of more than 70 artworks, this guide looks at how artists have painted, sketched and modelled their lovers, and how the theme of love has found its way into an array of subjects – from landscapes to still-life and self-portraits.

“Boy With Paintings”, 1957–1959 by Peter Blake in “What Art Can Tell Us About Love”

Other artists include: Caravaggio, Georgia O’Keefe, Sarah Bernhardt, Picasso, Rembrandt, Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka, Clifford Prince-King, Chagall, Lotte Laserstein and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Due to be published on 13 March, What Art Can Tell Us About Love is a new and accessible way to understand art, through the passions that inspired the world’s greatest masterpieces.”

Sections in the book include Enduring Love, Serial Lovers, Soul Mates, Burning Passions, Secret Affairs, Love Triangles and Unrequited Love.

SPECIFICATIONS
Format: Hardback
Size: 210 x 150mm
Pages: 208 pp
ISBN: 9781399620963

More information is available here: [link]

“My Colouring Book”, 1963 by Pauline Boty in “What Art Can Tell Us About Love”

Screening date of 3rd March on BBC4 confirmed for Pauline Boty documentary!

Screenshot

The first screening on TV of BOTY: I am the Sixties, the new documentary film from Mono Media Films and Channel X, has been confirmed as 10:00pm on BBC4 on Monday 3rd March, then available on iPlayer.

Further info here from its creators: “The first TV documentary of the Pop Art sensation Pauline Boty; Boty: I Am The Sixties tracks the artist’s original contribution to British art, her feminism and unique take on the nascent celebrity culture of the 1960’s. Ahead of her time in so many ways, Boty’s story ends with her tragic early death at 28 in 1966 and the subsequent revival of interest in her work in the last decade.

Packed full of original photographs and art work, this 60 minute film calls on an array of family, friends, art critics and famous fans to lead us through the Boty story. Contributors include Pop Art titan Sir Peter Blake, comedian and artist Jim Moir, critic Kate Bryan, best friend and Print Designer Natalie Gibson MBE, Celia Birtwell CBE, musicians Corrine Drewery and Tanita Tikaram and TV presenter Ronnie Archer Morgan amongst many other notable friends and fans of the British female Pop Art pioneer Pauline Boty.

A Mono Media Films and Channel X Production; Boty: I Am The Sixties is Directed by Lee Cogswell, Written and produced by Vinny Rawding and Mark Baxter, Executive Producers are: Alan Marke, Jim Reid, Natalie Gibson MBE, Executive Producer for the BBC is Mark Bell.”

The BBC’s page for the programme is here: [link]

New images by John Aston added to Photos section of website

Contact sheets of Pauline Boty, c. 1962/63, photographed by John Aston. © Estate of John Aston

Many thanks indeed to the Estate of John Aston for agreeing to allow a selection of his portraits of Pauline Boty from the contact sheets above to be shown on the website. The images are, for the most part, unseen at large before.

John Aston trained as a photographer and graphic designer, starting his career as art editor for the magazine Photographic Review before joining the BBC Publishing division. He later became manager of the BBC’s Graphic Design Studios where his contributions included the iconic spinning globe ident. Aston photographed Boty on two occasions, his images accompanying the article “Pauline Goes Pop” in Men Only magazine’s issue of March 1963. One of his portraits of Boty is held by the National Portrait Gallery, which includes the only surviving record of her painting of Marilyn Monroe with beads, later overpainted by the work “Colour Her Gone”.

John Aston’s photos can be seen here: [link]

For information on the licensing any of these images please get in touch via the Contact form here: [link]

New BBC series “Simon Schama’s Story of Us” includes Pauline Boty in the first episode

“Historian Simon Schama explores how art and culture has captured the transformations of British society since 1945. Although the postwar years saw a shared optimism, expressed in the 1951 Festival of Britain, Simon discovers how a common British identity slowly fragmented as different and sometimes clashing voices emerged. Writers like Alan Sillitoe depicted working-class life with new authority, while artists like Pauline Boty reflected a new mood of sexual frankness. The evangelical Christian Festival of Light fought back against what its leaders viewed as a rising tide of filth, but nothing could stop competing voices from being heard – first on TV, in what were known as ‘open access’ programmes, and today on social media.” [from the BBC website]
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The programme will be first broadcast on BBC2 at 21:00 on Wednesday 8 January and then available on iPlayer.
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For further information please see [link]
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With thanks to John Earls for the notification.

New page detailing contents of Boty’s collage “Picture Show” added to the site

Key for “Picture Show”, c. 1960/61

The key above for the different individuals and objects assembled by Pauline Boty in one of her most important collages – the c. 1960/61 work “Picture Show” – is part of a new page recently added to the site.
Thanks to Boty’s preproduction interview for and commentary during Ken Russell’s 1962 BBC documentary “Pop Goes the Easel”, we have a record of her inspiration behind creating the collage and descriptions of some of its sources, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proust, Marilyn Monroe and Colette.
With most of the contents identified, it is hoped that in time the rest of the items can be also and the list on this page completed.
The new page can be accessed here: [link]

Access a selection of pages from “Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister”

Screenshot of spreads from “Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister” provided by MasterPlan from Circular Software

Welcome to a new feature where you can access a selection of pages from the recent biography by Marc Kristal, Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister, published by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of the Quarto Group. The service is provided by MasterPlan from Circular Software.

The pages displayed will be regularly changing to give an indication of the subjects covered and images contained within the book. Above is a screenshot of the spreads as displayed, where you can view, click or swipe through, search text within, share to social media, and more.

For more details and to go to the feature, please click here: [link]

Previously unseen collage among three works by Boty to be sold in Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale at Christie’s London

The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale starting at 2:00pm on 17 October includes the previously unseen and unknown work Untitled (Christmas collage ’64) executed by Pauline Boty in 1964. The three works in the sale can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 12 October.

The following images and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1964, Untitled (Christmas collage ’64) gouache, ink and collage on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 131
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Untitled (Christmas collage ’64)
gouache, ink and collage on paper
17½ x 125⁄8 in. (44.5 x 32.1 cm.) Executed in 1964
£10,000-15,000 | US$14,000-20,000 | €12,000-18,000

Provenance
The artist, and by descent to the present owner

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), c. 1961, Untitled (Head of a Girl) gouache on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 130
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Untitled (Head of a Girl)
gouache on paper
19¾ x 16 in. (50.2 x 40.7 cm.) Executed circa 1961.
£30,000-50,000 | US$40,000-65,000 | €36,000-59,000

Provenance
The artist, and by descent to the present owner

Literature
‘Advertisement for Rowney’, ARK, No. 28, London, 1961, illustrated.
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, p. 43, pl. 13, as part of “Advertisement for Rowney’.
M. Kristal, Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister, London, 2023, p. 106, as part of ‘Advertisement for Rowney’, illustrated.
Untitled (Head of a Girl) featured in an advertisement for Rowney artists’ materials, first published in ARK No. 28, 1961. ARK was a style and design journal published by the Royal College of Art from 1950-1978. The Rowney advert, designed by Keith Branscombe,
depicts Boty seated in front of three of her paintings, holding a card with ROWNEY printed on it. As in other photo shoots, Boty is making sure her work appears in photographs taken of her, anchoring her identity as an artist, not just a pretty face.

We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1961, Theatre Design for Irma’s Room in ‘The Balcony’ by Jean Genet, ink, watercolour, gouache, collage and lace on paper © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 135
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Theatre Design for Irma’s Room in ‘The Balcony’ by Jean Genet
inscribed ‘The Balcony. Jean Genet/Irma’s Room’ (on a label attached to the backboard)
ink, watercolour, gouache, collage and lace on paper
12½ x 18 in. (31.8 x 45.8 cm.)
Executed in 1961.
£20,000-30,000 | US$27,000-39,000 | €24,000-35,000

Provenance
with Mayor Gallery, London.
Private collection, UK, from whom acquired by the present owner circa 2019

Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty, June 1993, no. 10. Wolverhampton, Arts Council England, City Art Gallery, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, June – November 2013, pp. 68, 129, exhibition not numbered, pl. 34: this exhibition travelled to Chichester, Pallant
House Gallery, November 2013 – February 2014; and Poland, Łódź, Museum Sztuki, March – May 2014.

Literature
LITERATURE
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, pp. 68, 129, pl. 34.
M. Kristal, Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister, London, 2023, p. 139, illustrated.

We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot

Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
17 OCT 2PM BST | LIVE AUCTION 22686
Christie’s, 8 King Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT

Viewing
From 12 October

Further information is available here: [link]


“Pauline Boty: The Wimbledon Bardot” talk to be held at Wimbledon Bookfest on 27 October

As part of their annual festival Wimbledon Bookfest have announced the a talk between Dr Sue Tate and Samira Ahmed at Rutherford Theatre, Wimbledon High School on Sunday 27 October at 3:00pm:

“An opportunity to find out more about one of the leading co-founders of the British Pop art movement, Pauline Boty.

Known as the Wimbledon Bardot, Pauline Boty was a student at Wimbledon School of Art. She smashed stereotypes and confronted issues well ahead of her time, but was not given the recognition she deserved. During her tragically short life, she produced an exciting and complex body of work, commenting on pop culture, feminism and so much of the era in which she lived. Dr Sue will be in conversation with BBC broadcaster and journalist Samira Ahmed.”

‘The life of Boty? A Molotov fusion of possibility and loss.’ – Ali Smith”

Details
Title: Pauline Boty: The Wimbledon Bardot
Location: Rutherford Theatre at Wimbledon High School
Date: Sunday 27 October 2024
Time: 3:00 pm
Tickets are £15 and can be booked here [link]