Explore different British artists and art movements that share the themes of each author.
While most people think of Pop Art as a quintessentially American art movement, it's roots actually began in the early 1950s in Britain. This work by Richard Hamilton foretells many of the elements that the movement would come to embrace (consumerism, celebrity, sex, comic books, etc.). Richard Hamilton also provided the first definition of pop art: "Pop Art is: Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business".
Ian W. Hill, Flickr Images
"On the Balcony" is another early Pop Art work, painted by esteemed British artist Peter Blake. Blake often played with aspects of popular culture and modern art versus traditional, "high" art in his paintings. It features various images of the theme 'On the Balcony', including a painting by Eduoard Manet of the same name (high art) and magazine clippings of the royal family (popular culture). Many of his paintings explore the idea of the old versus the new.
Tate Gallery, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-on-the-balcony-t00566
Pauline Boty was the only female artist of the Pop Art scene in Britain. Just as the women in Fleming's novels play a specific stereotypical and overtly sexual role, she was mostly ignored and written off by her male contemporaries because she was beautiful, blonde, and also an actress. She has only recently been 'rediscovered' and lauded for her female perspective on the political and social events of her time.
© Mayor Gallery, London / Bridgeman Images
Another early collage work of Pauline Doty's, commenting on British colonialism from a female perspective. This is another great example of artists of the time looking critically at Britain's past and questioning the way forward.
Pauline Doty went on to create some of her more well-known works of the Pop Art movement in the 1960s.
Pauline Boty Estate. Photo credit: Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Image: TheMovieDB.org
Image: TheMovieDB.org
Paul Nash's 1918 oil on canvas painting "We are Making a New World" depicts a bleak landscape destroyed by Word War I battles.
Paul Nash, 1918, n.p.
IWM (Art.IWM ART 1146), http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20070.
"Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" was an art installation at the Tower of London, created by Paul Cummins. 888,246 ceramic red poppies were "planted" in the Tower's moat, each poppy representing a British military fatality during the first World War 1914-18.
Adam Singer/Flickr Images
"Devastation, 1941: An East End Street" was painted by Graham Sutherland in 1941. He was employed by the War Artist's Advisory Committee to record World War II, and many of his works focused on bomb devastation during the London Blitz.
© Tate, (CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0), https://media.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N05/N05736_10.jpg.
Frank Auerbach was known for his emotional paintings. He would build up paint thickly on a canvas and scrape it repeatedly, forming many layers. He often painted the same subject over and over again: this particular landscape, Primrose Hill, he returned too many times in every season and type of weather.
Modern artists began to move towards less representational kinds of art and incorporated more emotion and texture into their paintings. Many artists were grappling with dark and sombre feelings after the end of the Second World War, and chose to reject the traditional styles of painting up until that point.
Image: Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/auerbach-primrose-hill-t01270
L. S. Lowry's paintings focused on "the working man". He created dozens of paintings of industrial Britain between 1940 and 1960. His style of painting featured simplistic figures, often in similar dark clothes, with views of the working factories and buildings of Britain in the background.
Lucian Freud was one of the main portrait artists of the 20th century. He painted emotional and expressionistic portraits, that were considered to have a strong psychological impact. "Hotel Bedroom" was an early painting by Freud portraying himself and his second wife. The portrait illustrates the anxiety and tension in their relationship at that time.
WikiArt, https://www.wikiart.org/en/lucian-freud/hotel-bedroom
Image: Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/perry-aspects-of-myself-t07904
David Bowie and his created alter-ego, “Ziggy Stardust”, represent the new freedom and exploration of identity found in the 1970s. The image of Ziggy Stardust was in part created by Kasai Yamamoto, a Japanese designer known for his iconic and gender-bending stage outfits.
"Bowie in Kasai Yamamoto" Image from https://www.messynessychic.com/2020/07/28/an-ode-to-the-man-who-dressed-ziggy-stardust/
Image from https://www.christies.com/features/David-Hockney-Portrait-of-an-Artist-Pool-with-Two-Figures-9372-3.aspx
Image: ArtSpace, https://www.artspace.com/rachael-house/to-be-normal-is-not-a-healthy-aspiration-2009
Image 1
Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gallaccio-preserve-beauty-t11829
Image 2
Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gallaccio-preserve-beauty-t11829
Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gallaccio-preserve-beauty-t11829
Image: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/life-between-islands-tate-exhibition
Image: V&A, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136603/spirit-of-the-carnival-print-tam-joseph/
Image: ArtUK.org, https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/uk-school-report-72470
Image: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/althea-mcnish-an-introduction
Image: Tate, Who is Sonia Boyce? https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-sonia-boyce
Image: Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/johnson-figure-in-raw-umber-t15261
Image: https://www.singhtwins.co.uk/index.html
Image: https://www.mirandaforrester.com/