Discussion on Pauline Boty from Radio 4’s Front Row now available on BBC Sounds

The section on Boty concludes the programme and starts at approximately 29:10. The BBC website describes the contents of this edition as follows:

“The extraordinary work of the artist Pauline Boty (1938 – 1966) is explored by the curator of a new exhibition, Mila Askarova, and the art historian Lynda Nead.

Paddington director Paul King returns with Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role. He talks with Samira about exploring the backstory of Willy Wonka and Roald Dahl’s surprising vision for fiction’s greatest confectioner.

Front Row rounds up the best non-fiction books of 2023 with Caroline Sanderson – non-fiction books editor for The Bookseller and chair of judges for the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2022, Stephanie Merritt – critic and novelist, and John Mitchinson – cofounder of Unbound, the independent crowdfunding publisher and co-presenter of literary podcast, Backlisted.”
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The programme is available to listen to here [link]

Details
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath
Released On: 6 Dec 2023
Available for over a year

New landmark eight-part BBC series includes work by Boty

Art that Made Us is a landmark eight-part series for BBC Two co-produced by the BBC and The Open University. Through 1,500 years and eight dramatic turning points, the series presents an alternative history of the British Isles, told through art.

Leading British creatives, including Simon Armitage, Anthony Gormley, Lubaina Himid, Maxine Peake and Michael Sheen join cultural historians to explore key cultural works that define each age.

Boty is represented in the final episode of the series, Brilliant Isles which “explores how the generation of artists who recorded the shocks of global war gave way in the 1950s and 1960s to an explosion of new voices from across the British Isles, reinventing the arts and creating a richer, more diverse culture. Young artists rebelled against the old establishment, kicking against the confines of class, sex, nation and race. Actress Lesley Sharp performs passages from Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough play A Taste of Honey which brought the ordinary lives and unheard voices of working class women to a mainstream audience, while Chila Kumari Singh Burman explores the career of pop artist Pauline Boty.” [from the BBC website]

For further information including synopses, clips, broadcasting times and dates and link to iPlayer please see the BBC Programme page here [link]

Images of Boty’s lost collages seen in “Pop Goes the Easel” to be shown on paulineboty.org

“Untitled (I surrender dear)”, collage, c. 1961. Screen grab from “Pop Goes the Easel”. *© Estate of Pauline Boty*

I would like to thank the BBC Photo Library for their assistance in confirming that copyright for the images of Pauline Boty’s works shown in Ken Russell’s 1962 documentary Pop Goes the Easel resides with the Estate of Pauline Boty, and am delighted therefore to be able to include them on this website.
Commissioned by BBC Television for its Monitor series, Russell’s film includes 16 of Boty’s works shown initially full screen and face-on and then side-on whilst she sat with Peter Blake to discuss their content and sources of imagery. The titles aren’t discussed, but as mentioned in the previous News item, the hope is to ultimately match at least some of them to those of works exhibited in the Blake, Boty, Porter, Reeve exhibition which took place at the AIA Gallery whilst the programme was being filmed.

For UK viewers, Pop Goes the Easel is currently available on iPlayer here: [link]