POP MODELS will run until 28 September at Museum MORE,Gorssel, Netherlands, who have announced the following about the exhibition:
“Advertisements, comic strips, bold colours – and women: these are defining elements of Pop Art in the 1960s and early 1970s. The role of women in Pop Art was twofold, perhaps even ambiguous. They embodied a stereotypical, desirable ideal, while also emerging as symbols of liberation. Women were at once supermodels and role models. In POP MODELS, Museum MORE becomes the first museum to put women in Pop Art at centre stage. As both muses and makers. The exhibition focuses on Europe, where the movement was often more outspoken and socially engaged than its American counterpart. This major exhibition at MORE presents an extensive selection of paintings, collages and objects by well-known artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein and Richard Hamilton, alongside exciting discoveries like Ketty La Rocca and Jana Želibská.
Website for POP MODELS, Museum MORE, Gorssel, featuring Evelyne Axell’s “Ice Cream”, 1964
POP MODELS presents more than 70 works by nearly 60 artists from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain, from both museum and private collections. The exhibition was curated by guest curator Feico Hoekstra, in collaboration with Julia Dijkstra, Curator at Museum MORE.
Pauline Boty, (Untitled) Sunflower Woman, 1963
The accompanying illustrated publication contains a text by Curator Julia Dijkstra and guest curator Feico Hoekstra, an essay by Maaike Meijer (Professor of Gender Studies) and Rosemarie Buikema (Professor of Art, Culture and Diversity), and Julia Dijkstra’s interview with British-American artist Jann Haworth. The book is published by WBooks and designed by Studio Mayra & Sam: 160 pages, approx. 100 images, price: € 34.95.”
Details POP MODELS Museum MORE, Hoofdstraat 28, 7213CW Gorssel, Netherlands Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm Tel: +31 (0) 575 760 300. Email: info@museummore.nl
Pauline Boty, “Red Manoeuvre”, 1962, oil on board. Image courtesy of Gazelli Art House
The Way Forward: Derek Boshier and the Sixties will run from 25 April – 6 June at Gazelli Art House, with works by Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, Peter Phillips, Richard Smith and Joe Tilson.
“Gazelli Art House London is pleased to present The Way Forward: Derek Boshier and the Sixties, the first posthumous solo exhibition dedicated to Derek Boshier (1937—2024). Curated with renowned art historian Marco Livingstone, the exhibition focuses on works from the 1960s and charts the transformations in Boshier’s worldview and visual style, in parallel to wider changes in society. This landmark presentation revisits Boshier’s pivotal transition from pioneering Pop figuration to bold geometric abstraction, a shift catalysed by his travels to India in 1962 under a Commonwealth scholarship.
Together with fellow RCA students David Hockney, Allen Jones, Peter Phillips and R. B. Kitaj, he participated in the landmark Young Contemporaries exhibition at R.B.A. Galleries London in 1962, which propelled Pop Art to public prominence. Among the first exponents of British Pop Art, Boshier distinguished himself from contemporaries such as Peter Blake and Pauline Boty through his unique brand of satirical social commentary. Two important paintings from this formative student period of Boshier’s work, Special K (1961) and W for Euthanasia (1962), represent twin poles of this art, though both combine narrative elements, references to moral dilemmas and to the human predicament as reflected in the news, advertising, consumerism and popular culture. Special K, one of Boshier’s key Pop works, takes its striking central motif from a popular American breakfast cereal manufactured by the multinational company Kellogg’s and combines it with a prescient reference to James Bond predating the first Bond film by a year – and the Thunderball movie by four years – and to the American-Russian space race in the rockets firing upwards into the letter ‘K’. Euthanasia, painted within living memory of the Nazi death camps active during the artist’s own early childhood, presents a sequence of generic figures alongside portraits of men protecting themselves with gas masks, as a caustic perspective on a subject that remains just as contentious today in the discussions now taking place about assisted dying.
As early as 1963 Boshier had developed a distinctive approach to abstraction, embracing shaped canvases and vibrant geometric compositions. Moving away from his earlier more figurative Pop works, Boshier began employing dynamic colour contrasts and layered forms to create spatial ambiguity and a sense of movement. Although aligned with the aesthetics of post-painterly abstraction in the US by artists such as Kenneth Noland and Ellsworth Kelly, Boshier’s pieces are infused with his experiences when travelling in India, alongside the British Pop iconography he was so instrumental in shaping.
Boshier’s journey to India was transformative — his immersion in Hindu mythology and street iconography informed a strikingly new visual language. He encountered imagery woven into everyday life, from temple icons to barbershop posters, shaping a body of work that blended Pop sensibilities with symbolic motifs. His return to the UK marked a decisive shift: his compositions became bolder, more architectural and attuned to the mechanics of visual perception.
Derek Boshier, “Viewer”, 1965, Image courtesy of Gazelli Art House
The painting Viewer (1963) is a pivotal work in Boshier’s formal evolution. It contains figures depicted through viewfinder or window-like shapes and rainbow motifs, but departs from a rectangular canvas format through the asymmetric shaped support, reinforcing the illusion of depth in the composition. This work speaks to Boshier’s enduring fascination with how media, advertising and urban space influence perception.
Paintings from this period were showcased in the seminal New Generation exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery (1964) and at Robert Fraser Gallery (1965). They interrogate perception and representation through complex spatial arrangements and optical interplay. This experimentation led to bold, structured abstractions that shared affinities with the architectural rhythms of urban space. Shaped canvases such as Highlights (1966), with its dramatic array of inverted triangles, explore the illusion of depth through geometric fragmentation.
Reflecting on his own practice, Boshier once remarked: ‘I like to think of them as Pop abstraction. I looked at neon signs and that’s where it came out. India changed my life. I became a much more tolerant person. And I became a fatalist. Fatalists are optimists.’
The latter half of the 1960s saw Boshier increasingly engage with conceptual and political currents in art. Questioning the function of painting in an era of mass-media saturation, he expanded his practice to incorporate ready-made materials, film and text-based works, aligning himself with socially engaged artmaking. His active participation in political movements — campaigning against the Vietnam War, nuclear armament and systemic racism — underscored his commitment to art as a tool for cultural critique.
Derek Boshier, “Highlights”, 1966. Image courtesy of Gazelli Art House
Gazelli artist and contemporary of Boshier, Jann Haworth, describes these paintings as ‘a conversation stopper… no pigeonholing into Op or Pop; the painting is silent vision. A space at the heart of art town, a time and place to indulge in just looking, taking a long moment.’ They embody Boshier’s ability to balance precision with raw energy, a visual dynamism that continues to resonate today.
Complementing the presentation of Boshier’s paintings from the 1960s in the gallery’s main space will be a selection of works by artists who were also part of the contingent at the Royal College of Art associated with the rise of Pop Art in Britain: from the 1959 intake with Boshier are R. B. Kitaj, David Hockney, Allen Jones and Peter Phillips; Pauline Boty, who began her studies a year earlier in the Stained Glass department and became a fast friend; Patrick Caulfield, who arrived at the College a year after Boshier; and three artists, Peter Blake, Joe Tilson and Richard Smith, who had completed their studies at the College in the mid-1950s but who became friends, mentors, and sources of inspiration to the younger artists including Boshier himself. Ken Russell’s celebrated BBC film Pop Goes the Easel, which introduced Pop Art to the general public, featured Boshier alongside Blake, Boty, and Phillips.
The exhibition also features key works by these artists, each shaping the trajectory of British Pop Art. David Hockney’s 3 Snakes (1962) subverts abstraction with coded homoerotic imagery, blending illusionism and flatness in a playful challenge to formalist painting. Pauline Boty’s Red Manoeuvre (1962) captures the energy of the Swinging Sixties, using bold colours and a red-uniformed figure to explore female sexuality and cultural iconography. Peter Blake’s Sammy Davis Jnr (1957—1960) reflects his fascination with celebrity culture, while Joe Tilson’s Page 16: Ecology, Air, Earth, Fire, Water (1969) merges screenprint and wood relief to address countercultural politics and his exploration of the Four Elements. Peter Phillips’s One Five Times/ Sharpshooter (1960) embodies the graphic dynamism of Pop, and Patrick Caulfield’s Pony (1964) marks his shift toward a refined, hard-edged style. Allen Jones’ Cockpit (1963) extends his fascination with the canvas as object previously seen in his bus paintings of 1962 and with the fusion of figuration with languages of abstraction. Richard Smith’s A Whole Year a Half a Day VIII (1966), one of a series of twelve three-dimensional paintings referencing the calendar months and the hours on a clock, provides abstract equivalents for the prosaic objects they reference, taking Pop concerns into more minimalist territory. Together, these works highlight the breadth of Pop Art’s experimentation, from figuration to abstraction, capturing a movement deeply attuned to the cultural pulse of its time.
Boshier’s 1960s abstractions cement his position within a transatlantic dialogue of formal experimentation while remaining deeply personal in their conceptual rigour. His ability to synthesise the energy of advertising culture with the concerns of abstraction speaks to his enduring relevance. The Way Forward: Derek Boshier and the Sixties offers a vital reconsideration of his artistic legacy.”
Further information
Gazell Art House, 39 Dover Street, London W1S 4NN Tel: +44 207 491 8816 Gallery website: [link]
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.” . 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]
Pauline Boty, “Untitled (red yellow blue abstract”), 1961, Oil on board (PB052). Courtesy of Private Collection and Estate of Pauline Boty. Image courtesy of Gazelli Art House
The exhibition will run from Wednesday 9 – Sunday 13 October 2024 in The Regent’s Park with over 270 galleries from more than 40 countries present. Gazelli Art House have announced the following about their attendance:
”We are thrilled to present a solo booth at Frieze Masters 2024 dedicated to the pioneering British painter Pauline Boty (1938–1966). This exclusive exhibition offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with significant paintings from across Boty’s short but incendiary career, accompanied by an insightful selection of archival material. This presentation, Gazelli Art House’s first booth for Frieze Masters, reaffirms the gallery’s commitment to celebrating Boty’s effervescent life and her lasting impact on the art world. It follows the success of Pauline Boty: A Portrait at Gazelli Art House, London (1 December 2023–24 February 2024) which was Boty’s first posthumous solo exhibition in a decade.
A pivotal figure in the British Pop Art movement of the 1960s, Boty defied conventional norms with her fearless exploration of femininity, politics, and popular culture. Often overshadowed by her male peers during her lifetime – a life tragically cut short by her untimely death from cancer in 1966 at the age of 28 – Boty’s work is now rightfully recognised for its significant contribution to the cultural discourse of her time, and its enduring influence on subsequent generations. In the words of art historian and leading Boty expert Dr Sue Tate ‘Her work was so bold, so outrageous, so unusual, and she so shattered gender expectations that people couldn’t cope.’
Key pieces on display include Untitled (red yellow blue abstract) (1961), unseen by the public for over two decades, is one of only four abstract paintings Boty made and encapsulates the spirit and vibrancy of the ‘swinging’ sixties. Boty insightfully described the pop art movement as a “nostalgia for now”, and regularly incorporated contemporary subjects in her work, including Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, and an Italian Mafia boss in the painting Big Jim Colosimo (c.1963).
Boty’s astute social commentary was bound up with the active role she herself played the cultural milieu of the era. Her illustrious career encompassed stage, screen, and radio, with standout performances in the film Alfie (1966) and Frank Hilton’s Day of the Prince (1963). Archival photographs included in the Frieze Masters presentation vividly capture Boty’s dynamic persona.
This exhibition not only honours Boty’s pioneering approach and feminist legacy but also celebrates the concerted efforts of many to secure her rightful place in art history. Gazelli Art House is proud to lead this significant moment, recognising and celebrating Pauline Boty’s impact. Boty enriched Pop Art by bringing together celebration and critique in a way no one had done before.” . Further information Gazell Art House, 39 Dover Street, London W1S 4NN Tel: +44 207 491 8816 Gallery website: [link]
FRIEZE MASTERS October 9 – 13 2024 The Regent’s Park Frieze Masters website: [link] Tickets for Frieze Masters and Frieze London are available to buy here: [link]
Pauline Boty, costume for the Bishop, The Balcony, 1961. Gouache on paper. On display in Stage & Screen: Designs from the James L Gordon Collection at the Hunterian Art Gallery. Photo by Colin Malcolm
This free exhibition includes three costumes (for the Bishop, the Judge and the General) and a set design from 1961, all created by Boty for an unrealised production of Jean Genet’s “The Balcony” and runs until 25 February 2024. The University of Glasgow website [location of the Hunterian Art Gallery] has further information, as follows:
“Stage and Screen features works on paper from the James L Gordon Collection, on show in Scotland for the first time. Covering designs for both theatre and film, this visually engaging exhibition offers a rare glimpse into this unique personal collection of rich and diverse material.
With a few earlier exceptions, the James L Gordon collection comprises set and costume designs for British theatre productions from about 1900 to the 1990s, and British and American designs for film and television from the 1930s onwards. The designs are almost all two-dimensional: drawings, watercolours, paintings and collages, rather than three-dimensional models. The range of material is immense, embracing everything from Shakespeare to pantomime, opera to ballet, Hammer horror to Hollywood musicals and Doctor Who to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Spanning the whole of the 20th century, Stage and Screen includes works by leading artists such as Cecil Beaton and David Hockney and designs for famous productions including Oh! Calcutta!, Hair, Cats, Little Shop of Horrors and The Slab Boys. The exhibition also features costume designs for stars such as Rudolf Nureyev, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Grace Jones.
Presented chronologically, by decade, the hundreds of works on display cover a wide range of social and cultural issues, highlighting the history of how they have been represented in the theatre and on screen.
As well as set designs by artists such as Patrick Caulfield, Edward Burra, Paul Nash and Rex Whistler, the exhibition also features costume designs for performers and musicians, often identifiable by the inscriptions or drawings, including Liza Minelli, Elton John, The Jackson Five, Mick Jagger and The Beatles.”
Pauline Boty, costume for the Judge and the General, The Balcony, 1961. Gouache on paper. On display in Stage & Screen: Designs from the James L Gordon Collection at the Hunterian Art Gallery. Photo by Colin Malcolm
Location Hunterian Art Gallery University of Glasgow 82 Hillhead St Glasgow G12 8QQ The Hunterian is part of the University of Glasgow. The Museums, Art Gallery and The Mackintosh House are located on the Gilmorehill campus, 3km west of Glasgow city centre
Gallery Stage and Screen is in Gallery 2, located upstairs. The space is fully accessible via lift
Opening times Tuesday to Sunday 10am–5pm. Closed Monday. Please check the Opening Hours page before visting, here [link]
Further information, including a downloadable list of works, is available here: [link]
Stage & Screen: Designs from the James L Gordon Collection at the Hunterian Art Gallery. Photo by Colin Malcolm
With much thanks to Colin Malcolm for both providing the information about the exhibition and sharing his photos from the event.
Monica Vitti with Heart, 1963, shown on display in “Pauline Boty: a portrait” at Gazelli Art House
The exhibition has understandably received a considerable amount of favourable reviews and reassessments of Pauline Boty’s life and work so, as promised, we’ve put together a selection of representative quotes with links to the original articles (please note however – some require a subscription to access or are behind a paywall).
“Art historians now broadly agree that Boty’s work stands alongside the best Pop art of the era – and had she not died at the age of only 28, many believe she was on course to become one of the great artists of her generation.” “‘Bold, outrageous’: forgotten star of swinging 60s pop art celebrated with London solo show”, Rob Walker, The Observer, 26 November 2023 [link]
“Boty’s paintings revel in the pleasures of consumerism, in the experience of fandom and infatuation, but with a gaze invested with tenderness towards the reciprocal desires of men and women – in sharp contrast to the ironic fetishisation of women found in other Pop art. This rare show brings together key canvases such as Colour Her Gone and With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo with earlier collages and works in stained-glass.” “The Top 10 Exhibitions to See in December 2023”, J.J. Charlesworth, ArtReview, 30 November 2023 [link]
“To describe Pauline Boty as a ‘pioneer’ is a bit like calling someone a ‘one-off’. It’s not an adequate description of her in any way.” “Life in colour: Annie Nightingale remembers Pop art painter Pauline Boty”, The Spectator, 2 December 2023 [link]
“There are only 25 recorded Pop period (1962-66) paintings by Pauline Boty, who encapsulated London’s Swinging Sixties with her blonde bob, black eyeliner and colourful, politically attuned art – and five of them are in a show at Gazelli Art House (until February 24).” “Pauline Boty in the Limelight”, Melanie Girlis, Financial Times, 14 December 2023 [link]
“A similar desire to explore femininity and attitudes to female bodies can be found in the work of Pauline Boty. A bold new show at Gazelli Art House – the first posthumous solo exhibition in a decade – platforms the life and work of the British writer, painter and actress who co-founded the 1960s Pop art movement. Pauline Boty: A Portrait digs into Boty’s life and work, showcasing her sensual and erotic works that defiantly reasserted a female perspective, parodying classic tropes associated with femininity and depicting male idols as sexualised pinups.” “A year of culture”, Will Moffitt, Mayfair Times, 1 January 2024 [link]
“‘Boty was a very diverse artist, incorporating collage, lithography, stained glass, painting, and film. Each time, regardless of medium, she would bring in new elements—be it references to pop culture imagery or Victoriana,’ said Gazelli Art House’s Mila Askarova. ‘I think that willingness and ability to experiment, yet still retain a distinctive style, separated her into a league of her own.’” “Pauline Boty’s Sex-Positive Pop Art Is Having a Moment”, Cath Pound, Artsy, 3 January 2024 [link]
“Boty’s transformation from David Frost’s ‘super bird’ to radical Pop artist with unusual ambitions is complete.” “Pauline Boty: Pop art’s only female icon laid bare”, Waldemar Januszczak, Sunday Times, 7 January 2024 [link]
“Boty’s art sizzled with wit, wry humour and social commentary. Her practice was diverse, ranging from stained glass to irreverent paintings and collages of icons such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, as well as explorations of race riots in America and the Cuban missile crisis. She subverted expectations, painting men like sex symbols and giving her female subjects sexual freedom.” “Pauline Boty: the dazzling 1960s artist finally having her moment”, Ella Alexander, Harper’s Bazaar, 16 January 2024 [link]
Exhibitiondetails Pauline Boty: A Portrait Exhibition dates: 1 December 2023 — 24 February, 2024
Gazelli Art House, 39 Dover Street, London W1S 4NN Tel: (+44) 01353 660347
Further information, including additional reviews, is available at the Gazelli Art House website here: [link]
“Untitled (Pauline Boty In Her Studio with ‘July 26’), 1963” by Michael Ward. Vintage photographic print. Ed. 4/25. Courtesy of Elizabeth Seal-Ward for the Michael Ward Archive & Gazelli Art House
In association with the exhibition “Pauline Boty: a portrait” currently showing at Gazelli Art House the gallery has commissioned a series of four C-prints by Michael Ward of Pauline Boty alongside some of her key Pop art paintings in editions of only 25 per image.
Notably, the works shown include Scandal 63 (the only surviving record of her painting based on Lewis Morley’s portrait of Christine Keeler, last seen in the 1960s) and With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo (an early version of which appeared on the cover of Men Only in 1963 and sold for £1,159,500 at auction in 2022). Pauline Boty was also photographed by, among others, David Bailey, Lewis Morley, Michael Seymour and Roger Mayne and Ward’s images undoubtedly number amongst her best and most well-known portraits
In addition there are a small number of vintage silver gelatin prints by Ward available. Again, of note among these are Boty photographed alongside her lost work July 26, last seen in the 1968 BBC documentary The New Radicals.
“Untitled (‘Men Only’ cover shot), 1963/2023” by Michael Ward. Coloured C-print. Edition of 25. Courtesy of Elizabeth Seal-Ward for the Michael Ward Archive & Gazelli Art House
MICHAEL WARD (B. 1929; UK – D. 2011) Michael Ward rose to prominence as a photographer for the Evening Standard’s Show Page, capturing the emerging talents of his era, including luminaries such as Maggie Smith, Barbara Windsor, Jill Ireland, Jackie Collins, and Julie Christie. In the mid-1960s, Ward joined the Sunday Times where, alongside Bryan Wharton, he became one of the newspaper’s standout photographers. Their collaborative efforts extended beyond portraiture, to current events and news, including the Naples earthquake, the 1968 Paris riots, and the 1974 Turkish-Cypriot war. Ward’s extensive archive has been featured in exhibitions across Britain, with over fifty portraits spanning three decades housed in the National Portrait Gallery [biographical info courtesy of the Gazelli Art House website].
Further information For further information and high resolution previews of the images please click here: [link] Clicking on a thumbnail in each case provides detailed specifications, a scrollable preview and an Enquire button to request further information, including price and availability.
All images Copyright The Artist
Installation shot of the four C-prints by Michael Ward on display in the exhibition “Pauline Boty: a portrait”. The prints are displayed in front of a recreation of part of one of the collaged walls created by Boty. Image courtesy of Gazelli Art House
Pauline Boty: A Portrait previews 30 November, 6–8PM (GMT) with the Exhibition opening 1December 2023–24 February, 2024 at Gazelli Art House, London.
Colour Her Gone; by Pauline Boty, 1962, oil on canvas
The following information is from the gallery’s website:
“Gazelli Art House celebrates the life and legacy of trailblazing British painter Pauline Boty (1938-1966) in her first posthumous solo exhibition in a decade.
Pauline Boty: A Portrait presents a remarkable opportunity to view Boty’s coveted paintings in unison, alongside a plethora of profound, archival materials. Marking the artist’s third showing at Gazelli Art House, this exhibition continues the gallery’s explorations of Boty’s pivotal and enduring artistic impact. Pauline Boty: A Portrait marks over twenty years since Pauline Boty – The Only Blonde in the World (The Mayor Gallery and Whitford Fine Art, London), and ten years since Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman (Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK, touring to Pallant House Gallery) curated by Boty specialist and author, Dr Sue Tate. Pauline Boty: A Portrait will be accompanied by a catalogue and talk.
A prominent figure in the British Pop Art movement of the 1960s, Boty waylaid convention with her fearless exploration of femininity, societal norms, politics, and popular culture. Eschewed the esteem of her male contemporaries, and customarily eclipsed by preoccupations with her beauty and the tragedy of her untimely passing, Boty’s artworks are today venerated as climacteric within the cultural discourse surrounding the period.
In the pivotal early work Self Portrait (c.1955), Boty’s instinctual painterly ability delivers an immediate, and human, intensity. Elsewhere, Untitled (Landscape with Rainbow) (1961), seen in Ken Russell’s Young British Artists documentary Pop Goes the Easel (1962), is a rare abstract created concurrently with Boty’s graduation thesis on the rendering of dreams. Here, candied forms drift about an ochre and white expanse with all the turbulence of the ‘swinging’ sixties and the social unrest on the horizon. These bold, early abstracts are, Prof. David Alan Mellor states, ‘inflected by the Cohen brothers and the emblematics of Allen Jones’s rereadings of Dealauny and Kandinsky’.
The influence that film, alongside popular music, played upon Boty’s practice is evidenced in works such as Colour Her Gone (1962), With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo (1962), and Monica Vitti with Heart (1963). Dr. Sue Tate notes that, in press interviews the artist spoke of a “nostalgia for now” for “present day mythology”. As with myth, Boty’s paintings are laced with symbolism, where a rose may become an unapologetic allegory for female sexuality. These paintings demonstrate the abstract strewn apart and montaged with the figurative, in what would become Boty’s distinctive, painted collage technique.
From popular culture to political musings, in Cuba Si (1963) – named for Chris Marker’s 1961 film of the same name – Boty delivers a complex critique on a Postwar U.S. that denotes the artist’s “ongoing interest in Cuba”, says Author Marc Kristal. When we consider the term ‘Political Pop’ did not emerge until the 1980s, it would be by no means overzealous to suggest Boty was ahead of her time.
Yet, in many ways, Boty was so of her time, so attuned to the charge of change, and perhaps that energy is what resonates still so powerfully today. Boty’s appearances across stage, screen, and radio – including Alfie (1966), and Frank Hilton’s Day of the Prince (1963) at the Royal Court Theatre (for which Boty also designed the programme) – are here exemplified in video footage. In archival photographs within the exhibition we glimpse aspects of the artist’s vivid personality: Boty lies nude atop a chaise-longue, sits contemplative with two black cats, and mimics the actions of her painted subjects.
The significance of this exhibition is not only to draw attention to the radical artworks and ideas of Boty, and the new wave of feminism she undoubtedly heralded, but also to credit the efforts of recent years to rightfully reinstate Boty within the art historical canon.
Pauline Boty signed photo, by John Aston, 1962.
About the Artist Pauline Boty (1938-1966) was born in South London, and embarked on her artistic journey with a scholarship to Wimbledon School of Art in 1954. In 1958, she continued her studies at the Royal College of Art.
Boty’s diverse body of work, encompassing paintings, collages, and stained glass, often depicted individuals she deeply admired, celebrated her unapologetic femininity, and explored themes of female sexuality. As her career progressed, her paintings began to incorporate more overt or implicit critiques of the male-dominated societal norms she confronted, thus shedding light on the inequalities of the “man’s world” in which she navigated.
Boty’s artwork is held in the collections of: The National Portrait Gallery, London; Tate Britain, London; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Stained Glass Museum, Ely; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, Portugal; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisboa; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington.
About the Gallery Founded in 2010 by Mila Askarova, Gazelli Art House, London brings a fresh perspective to Mayfair – through championing artists from all corners of the globe. Focusing on artists at the height of their practice, the gallery showcases their work through a diverse programme of exhibitions and events. Along with its sister site in Baku, Gazelli Art House specialises in promoting art from Azerbaijan and its neighbours to introduce a greater understanding of the rich linguistic, religious and historical ties that connect these areas to international audiences. In 2015, the gallery further expanded to support artists working in digital art through its online platform: GAZELL.iO, comprising an online Residency programme, NFT drops and collaborations, a dedicated Project Space holding monthly exhibitions, and a permanently installed VR Library.
Acknowledgements For their generosity and insight, Gazelli Art House would like to thank the Estate of Pauline Boty, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, and other lenders to the exhibition who wish to remain anonymous.”
paulineboty.org is delighted and honoured to be contributing to this exhibition through the loan of a number of pieces of ephemera.
Exhibitiondetails Pauline Boty: A Portrait Preview: 30 November 2023 Time: 6–8pm (UK) Exhibition dates: 1 December 2023 — 24 February, 2024
Gazelli Art House, 39 Dover Street, London W1S 4NN Tel: (+44) 01353 660347
Further information is available at the Gazelli Art House website here: [link]
Pauline Boty, “Portrait of Derek Marlowe with Unknown Ladies”, oil on canvas, 1963
Subtitled A journey through painting and photography the exhibition runs from 13 June – 28 April 2024. The Tate website explains its subject further, as follows:
“The arrival of photography changed the course of painting forever. In this unique exhibition, we explore the dynamic relationship between the two mediums through some of the most iconic artworks of recent times.
From the expressive paintings of Pablo Picasso and Paula Rego, to striking photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall, you will see how these two distinct mediums have shaped each other over time.
You will also discover how artists have blurred the boundaries between painting and photography, creating new and exciting forms of art, such as Pauline Boty’s pop paintings, Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints, the photorealist works of Gerhard Richter, or Andreas Gursky’s large-scale panoramic photographs.
In an open-ended conversation between some of the greatest painters and photographers of the modern era, we explore how the brush and the lens have been used to capture moments in time.
The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the YAGEO Foundation, Taiwan. The YAGEO Foundation was founded by Taiwanese collector, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Pierre Chen in 1999.”
As well as Boty, other artists and photographers featured in Capturing The Moment include Michael Armitage, Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Lisa Brice, Cecily Brown, Miriam Cahn, George Condo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Jana Euler, Lucian Freud, Andreas Gursky, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Candida Höfer, Dorothea Lange, Louise Lawler, Marwan (Marwan Kassab-Bachi), Alice Neel, Paulina Olowska, Laura Owens, Pablo Picasso, Pushpamala N., Christina Quarles, Robert Rauschenberg, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Wilhelm Sasnal, Joan Semmel, Lorna Simpson, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Salman Toor, Luc Tuymans, Jeff Wall and Andy Warhol
This is Dr. Sue Tate’s assessment of the exhibition: “Still time to catch Capturing the Moment at Tate Modern before it closes on April 28th and see how unquestionably Pauline Boty’s work holds its own in company with major figures Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol. As you pass Richter’s Aunt Marianne, 1965, Boty’s Portrait of Derek Marlowe with Unknown Ladies will be in your sight line in the next room. With their shared use of monochrome photorealist reproduction of existing photographs yet very divergent meanings, they are in an equal dialogue. At the far end of the Pop art wall, Andy Warhol’s photo-screen printed Self Portrait echoes the Marlowe portrait. Boty, however, goes further than simple portrayal to offer a complex mix of gender critique (those poor unknown ladies) and object of desire. Wonderful to see Boty’s work taking and holding its due place in the pantheon of 20th century art.”
Further information, including how to book tickets, is available here: [link]
Pauline Boty 