Pop art pioneer
Pauline Boty’s 1962 tribute to Marilyn Monroe, “Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give”, sold earlier this evening at Christie’s London for £1,310,500 – a new record for one of her works! This was previously held by another of her paintings from 1962, “With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo”, which sold for £1,159,500 at Sotheby’s in 2022.
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The conclusion to the sale can be seen here: [link]
Pauline Boty’s tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give was exhibited at the Arthur Jeffress Gallery in August 1962, and gifted by the artist to a close friend two years later. It has remained in the same collection ever since.
Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art specialist Angus Granlund says the gift marked a key moment in Boty’s career: “A trailblazing pioneer and true polymath, Boty painted, acted, danced and engaged in political activism. However, at this key period she refocused her energy on painting, turning down acting roles to do so.” Granlund further describes the work as “a hugely important picture, and Boty’s only Marilyn painting still in a private collection. It unites two women who were synonymous with one another in the 1960s.”
Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), is a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March.
The essay and short film with Ali Smith are available here: [link]
Lot detail
Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give, 1962
Oil on hardboard
106.5 x 127 cm
Estimate
GBP 500,000-800,000
Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
20 March 6:30PM GMT | Live Auction 22673
Viewing
New York: from 9–21 February
London: from 13–20 March
Further information on the auction is here: [link]
Christie’s London has announced the following exciting news:
“THE ONLY PORTRAIT OF MARILYN MONROE BY BOTY IN PRIVATE HANDS, we will offer Pauline Boty’s celebratory tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March. The painting was gifted to a close friend of Boty’s in 1964 and has remained in the same collection since. One of Pop Art’s founding members, Pauline Boty died prematurely at the age of 28 in 1966. Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give is one of only around 25 Pop paintings that Boty created and was included in a rare lifetime exhibition at Arthur Jeffress Gallery in London in 1962.
Boty painted two further depictions of Monroe as tributes to the actress following her death, both of which are held in museum collections: Colour Her Gone, 1962 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery) and The Only Blond in the World, 1963 (Tate, London). Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give will be on view in New York from 9 to 21 February before being exhibited in London from 13 to 20 March.
Angus Granlund, Head of Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, Christie’s: ‘Painted in Boty’s distinctive style, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give takes the form of a pictorial collage that is entirely rendered in oil paint. A celebration of female empowerment, this is thought to be Boty’s only painting of Monroe painted during the actress’ lifetime. The epitaph referred to in the title relates to the film Something’s Gotta Give shutting down production. The centrepiece of the composition is taken from a photograph published in Life magazine on 22 June 1962, depicting Monroe swimming in a pool on set. Collecting, collating and synthesising mass culture imagery from newspapers, adverts and magazines was central to Boty’s practice. A true polymath, as well as being a ground-breaking artist, Boty was also a talented actress and political activist. She strongly identified with Monroe and is often associated with her. Held in the same private collection since 1964, this rare painting brings together these two celebrated 1960s icons. Christie’s is honoured to present Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale and look forward to welcoming clients in New York and London to view this Pop Art masterpiece.’
Pauline Boty was a pioneering artist whose work shaped one of the greatest movements in British art of the 20th century. Within her short lifetime, she created a powerful, vibrant group of works that explored popular culture and left-wing politics, subjects which were coming into sharp focus in the 1960s. Boty studied at the Royal College of Art, the seedbed of the Pop Art movement, where she met, befriended and went on to exhibit with Sir Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Peter Phillips and Patrick Caulfield. In 1961, she exhibited along with Blake, Geoffrey Reeve and Christine Porter at the A.I.A. Gallery in a group show seen as the very first Pop Art exhibition.”
Lot detail
Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give, 1962
Oil on hardboard
106.5 x 127 cm
Estimate
GBP 500,000-800,000
Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
20 March 6:30PM GMT | Live Auction 22673
Viewing
New York: from 9–21 February
London: from 13–20 March
Further information will both be added to this post and be available here nearer the time: [link]
The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale starting at 1:00pm on 19 October includes Pauline Boty’s Still life with paint brushes from c. 1959-61. The work can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 15 October.
The following image and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:
Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Still life with paint brushes
pencil, gouache and metallic paint on card
15 ¾ x 19 ¾ in. (40.5 x 52.7 cm.)
Executed circa 1959-61
Provenance
Purchased by Joe Boyd at the 1993 exhibition.
His sale; Christie’s, South Kensington, 12 December 2014, lot 97, where purchased by the present owner
Literature
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, pp. 28, 128, pl. 7.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty, May – June 1993, no. 8.
London, Whitford Fine Art and Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty: The Only Blond in the World, November – December 1998, exhibition not numbered.
Wolverhampton, Art Gallery, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, June – November 2013, exhibition not numbered
Estimate
GBP 25,000 – GBP 35,000
Auction details
LOT 127
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
19 OCT 1PM BST | LIVE AUCTION 21951
Note
We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate for her assistance in cataloguing this lot
Further information is available here: [link]
The Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale starting at 6:00pm on 21 March includes Bum from 1966, and the next day on 22 March starting at 1:00pm the Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale includes two early works, Golden nude and Nude on the beach. All three can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 14 March onwards.
The following images and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:
Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
BUM
Pencil, ink, watercolour, gouache and collage on paper
19 5/8 x 16 in. (50 x 40.6 cm)
Executed in 1966
Provenance
A gift from the artist to Kenneth Tynan, and by descent
Exhibited
London, Gazelli Art House, “Silver Lining”, March–April 2019, exhibition not numbered
Estimate
GBP 60,000 – GBP 80,000
Auction details
LOT 1
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
21 MARCH 06:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21948
Extract from Lot Essay
“Gifted by the artist to Kenneth Tynan in 1966, the present work has remained in his family ever since. Unprecedented in Boty’s limited body of work, this collage is the only known study for a major painting and provides a tantalising insight into her working methods. Executed in the same vibrant colours as the oil painting (sold Christie’s London, 22 November 2017, lot 4), the layers of collage reveal the complexity behind this playful composition.
BUM, a splendid and mature work, was Boty’s very last painting and painted after a diagnosis for cancer that ended her life so prematurely, aged only 28 in 1966. In the face of death, it is a wonderfully vibrant piece painted in colours straight from the tube. Commissioned by Kenneth Tynan for his notorious, erotic cabaret Oh! Calcutta! it places her, to the very end, at the cutting edge of the 60s zeitgeist. The title is a play on the French ‘O, quel cul tu as’ (‘O, what an arse you have’) and in a letter to the impresario, William Donaldson, Tynan outlined a gamut of ideas for the show, one of which was ‘a pop art ballet designed by Pauline Boty, based on paintings that focus on the principal erogenous zones’. BUM, intended as the first of a series, took its cue from the punning title. Within a precisely executed proscenium arch the female bottom is exquisitely and sensuously painted, the flesh has a bloom like a peach and the work could be read as a sensuous celebration of life. Yet the meaning is surely more ambiguous. We have a reified body part, set above the demotic title, BUM, rawly proclaimed in chunky san-serif lettering and revealed ‘on stage’ inviting perhaps a slap or a caning as much as a caress. Certainly, any simple celebration of sexual pleasure has been superseded by something more complex and interesting.
We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for preparing this catalogue entry.”
Further information is available here: [link]
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Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Golden nude
Signed and dated ‘BOTY. 59’ (lower right)
Oil on paper
23 1/2 x 17 1/4 in. (59.5 x 44 cm.)
Painted in 1959
Provenance
The artist, and by descent
Estimate
GBP 30,000 – GBP 50,000
Auction details
LOT 140
22 MARCH 01:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21949
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
Further information is available here: [link]
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Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Nude on the beach
Gouache on paper
19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (49.5 x 39.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1958-59.
Provenance
The artist, and by descent.
Estimate
GBP 30,000 – GBP 50,000
Auction details
LOT 141
22 MARCH 01:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21949
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
Further information is available here: [link]
An essay on Boty entitled Pauline Boty: ‘She was beautiful, with this marvellous laugh: clever, very bright, very much the early feminist’ by Jessica Lack is also available here: [link]
Antonio Canova’s Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene), regarded as his lost masterpiece and completed shortly before his death, will be a star lot in the Old Masters Evening Sale on 7 July 2022 at Christie’s in London
At one stage the sculpture was located outside the front of the house in Addison Road owned by antique dealer Jon Manasseh which Boty shared with Celia Birtwell. Derek Boshier also rented a room as a studio there whilst Peter Blake stored his paintings. The sculpture even makes a brief appearance in Ken Russell’s 1962 documentary Pop Goes the Easel with an aerial shot of Blake seated on it whilst he, Boshier and Peter Phillips wait for Boty to respond to their ringing the bell to be let in.
From the Christie’s website:
Having accidentally become an art world ‘sleeping beauty’ over the last 100 years – her authorship gradually forgotten and whereabouts unknown – this outstanding sculpture of Mary Magdalene in a state of ecstasy was commissioned by the Prime Minister of the day, Lord Liverpool (1812-1827). Recumbent Magdalene will be a star lot during Christie’s Summer edition of Classic Week in London.
Dr. Mario Guderzo, leading Canova scholar, former Director of the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova and Museo Biblioteca Archivio di Bassano del Grappa commented: “It is a miracle that Antonio Canova’s exceptional, long lost masterpiece the Recumbent Magdalene has been found, 200 years after its completion. This work has been searched for by scholars for decades, so the discovery is of fundamental importance for the history of collecting and the history of art. It testifies to the intensive thought process of the work of the Italian sculptor who was a fundamental witness of his time: faithful to Pope Pius VII, sought after by Napoleon, beloved by the English sovereign George IV, esteemed by the world of European collecting and of critical importance for the restitution of works of art seized under Napoleon. The re-discovery of the Recumbent Magdalene brings to a conclusion a very particular story worthy of a novel, of a marble of significant historical value and great aesthetic beauty produced by Canova in the final years of his artistic activity.”
Details of work
Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757–1822 Venice)
Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene), Marble, 1819–1822
75 x 176 x 84.5 cm (291⁄2 x 691⁄4 x 331⁄4 in.)
Estimate: GBP 5,000,000–8,000,000
Further information on the work and sale, including a short film with Christie’s European Sculpture specialist Donald Johnston and art critic Alastair Sooke on its remarkable rediscovery, is available here: [link]
Earlier this month the gouache on card work, created by Boty when a student at the Royal College of Art, sold for double its high estimate. The following image and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:
Produced in the first year of her studies at the RCA, this design already demonstrates Boty’s breadth of interests and talent for creative juxtapositions. The proportions and diptych arrangement seem made for church windows, but the content is far from ecclesiastical. Instead, the design features a dreamlike mix of architectural elements and a large letter ‘L’ framing figural elements including heads (painted frontally and in profile), and two lovers locked in an embrace. The assembly of disparate elements into a cohesive whole foreshadows Boty’s later Pop Art paintings and collages. It also reflects the influence of Charles Carey, who first taught Boty stained glass design at the Wimbledon Art School, and who encouraged students to use collage during the design process as a means of adding contemporary elements to an ancient artform.
Pauline Boty was a polymath who entered the Royal College of Art in 1958 to study stained glass design but became a leading light in the nascent Pop Art scene alongside contemporaries including Peter Blake and Derek Boshier. In this guise she produced paintings and collages which blended abstract elements with a profusion of imagery poached from pop culture, with surreal and often satirical results. She was also heavily involved with film and literature societies and agitated against some of the more egregious examples of contemporary architecture in London as a key organiser for the ‘Anti Uglies’.
Provenance
The artist’s family.
Private collection, London.
Purchased by the present owner at the 2016 exhibition
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Designs for stained glass window
gouache on card
9 ¼ x 3 in. (23.5 x 7.6 cm.) each
Executed circa 1958
Literature
Exhibition catalogue, Pop Art Heroes Britain, London, Whitford Fine Art, 2016, pp. 26–27, no. 13, illustrated
Exhibited
London, Whitford Fine Art, Pop Art Heroes Britain, May – July 2016, no. 13
Pauline Boty 