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]
“Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister” by Marc Kristal, published by Frances Lincoln. Photo by Lewis Morley.
“Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister” by Marc Kristal will be published by Frances Lincoln on 19th October.
From the publisher’s website: “Pauline Boty (1938 –1966) was a founding member of the British Pop Art movement and one of its very few women. She attended London’s Royal College of Art at a watershed moment when its students included David Hockney, Peter Blake, R.B. Kitaj and Allen Jones. Dying tragically young at the age of 28, she is now seen as central to British Pop Art and an icon of Sixties culture.
As well as her work as an artist, she appeared on the stage, TV and in film (including alongside Michael Caine in Alfie) and was a regular contributor on BBC radio. She was photographed by David Bailey and other society photographers and became a key player in 1960s London’s golden age.
Outspoken, provocative and charismatic, she refused to accept the oppositions between sexual woman and serious artist, between celebration and critique, between high and low culture. Observer and participant, feminist and hedonist, subject and object, Boty’s ‘double vision’ was decades ahead of its time, and prefigured a diversity of artists—everyone from Cindy Sherman to Madonna.
Having been largely forgotten after her death, her reputation has been growing steadily since the rediscovery and exhibition of her works in the early 1990s. As well as cropping up regularly in various books, documentaries and newspaper articles since then, she features as a central character in Ali Smith’s novel Autumn (2016) and one of her works sold for $1.4m at auction in June 2022.
After seeing her work at an auction in 2013, author Marc Kristal has spent almost ten years researching her life, interviewing the people who knew her and delving into archives and libraries.”
Contents page from the book with at left a portrait of Boty by Lewis Morley taken in September 1963.
Marc Kristal is an author, screenwriter, filmmaker, editor, and journalist. He has authored, co-written or contributed to more than forty books, notably Re:Crafted: Interpretations of Craft in Contemporary Architecture and Interiors (2010), Immaterial World: Transparency in Architecture (2011), and The New Old House: Historic and Modern Architecture Combined (2017). His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Wallpaper, Metropolis, and Elle Décor.
He has also written films about contemporary and modern artists, notably Cindy Sherman and Mark Rothko. He is a two-time MacDowell fellow.
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Format: Hardback ISBN: 9780711287549 Dimensions: 9.65 x 7.48 in / 245 x 190 mm Pages: 256 Price: £25.00 / $40.00
“Colours of Art: The Story of Art in 80 Palettes” by Chloë Ashby, published by Frances Lincoln
“Colours of Art: The Story of Art in 80 Palettes” by Chloë Ashby examines, in chronological order, 80 artworks and their palettes.
From the Quarto website: “Colour allows artists to express their individuality, evoke certain moods and portray positive or negative subliminal messages. And throughout history the greatest of artists have experimented with new pigments and new technologies to lead movements and deliver masterpieces. As something so cardinal, we sometimes forget how poignant colour palettes can be, and how much they can tell us.
Structured chronologically, ‘Colours of Art’ takes a fun, intelligent, visually engaging look at the greatest artistic palettes in history offering a refreshing and thoughtful primer for those who want to look at art through the ages from a different perspective. Spanning centuries and styles, from cave to contemporary art, Chloë Ashby invites you to navigate familiar and lesser-known works through a vibrant new lens.
‘When I was planning my chapters’ says Chloë, “some works came to me right away. Others, I discovered as I went along. This book isn’t definitive – how could it be, considering colour’s inexhaustible variety? Instead, it’s my attempt to capture and celebrate that variety on the page. Each artwork is accompanied by an infographic palette that’s intended to help you engage with the colours at play. My focus is on painting and colour is my jumping off point, but the art that does appear within these pages can be viewed through countless lenses.
The book’s Contents page
The story of art reads differently depending on where and when you’re doing the reading – this is just one version, told in 80 palettes. You can read it chronologically from start to finish, or you can dip in and out. Wherever you land, you’ll find yourself immersed in colour – rich, vital, chameleonic. For these pieces, colour is not only a tool (like a paintbrush or a canvas) but the fundamental secret to their success.’”
Chloë Ashby is a writer and editor. She studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art and has written about art and culture for numerous publications.
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Format: Hardback ISBN 9780711258044 Dimensions: 245 mm x 190 mm Pages: 256 Price: £25.00
“Bright Stars: Great Artists Who Died Too Young” by Kate Bryan examines the lives and legacies of 30 great artists who died too young. Illustrations by Anna Higgie.
In the book’s concluding “Unfinished Stories” section a chapter entitled “Grand Dame of Pop art” is devoted to Pauline Boty, who is also referenced elsewhere throughout its pages.
From the Quarto Group website: “Some of the world’s greatest and most-loved artists died under the age of forty. But how did they turn relatively short careers into such long legacies? What drove them to create, against all the odds? And how can we use these stories to re-evaluate artists lost to the shadows, or whose legacies are not yet secured? Most artists have decades to hone their craft, win over the critics and forge their reputation, but that’s not the case for the artists in this book. Art heavyweights Vincent van Gogh and Jean-Michel Basquiat have been mythologised by their early deaths, playing a key role in their posthumous fame. Others, such as Aubrey Beardsley and Noah Davis, were driven to create knowing their time was limited. For some, premature death, compounded by gender and racial injustice, meant being left out of the history books – as was the case with Amrita Sher-Gil, Charlotte Salomon and Pauline Boty, now championed by Kate Bryan in this important re-appraisal. And, as Caravaggio and Vermeer’s stories show us, it can take centuries for forgotten artists to be given the recognition they truly deserve. With each artist comes a unique and often surprising story about how lives full of talent and tragedy were turned into brilliant legacies that still influence and inspire us today. This is a celebration of talent so great it shines on.”
“Bright Stars: Great Artists Who Died Too Young” by Kate Bryan
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Format: Hardback ISBN: 9780711251731 Dimensions: 138 mm x 216 mm Pages: 224 Illustrations: 60 Price: £16.99 / $22.99
Pauline Boty 