Pauline Boty British, 1938-1966
Golden Nude, 1959
Oil on paper laid down on canvas
69 x 51 cm (Framed: 84 x 66 cm)
Signed and dated lower left
The Estate of Pauline Boty
Boty studied at Wimbledon School of Art from 1954 to 1958 and graduated in 1961 from the Royal College of Art, alongside her friends Peter Blake, Peter Phillips, Allen Jones,...
Boty studied at Wimbledon School of Art from 1954 to 1958 and graduated in 1961 from the Royal College of Art, alongside her friends Peter Blake, Peter Phillips, Allen Jones, Derek Boshier and Patrick Caulfield. Together they were collectively known as the 'Young Pop Artists'. After graduating, Boty threw herself energetically into painting and acting, though the former would prove to be her true passion. She revelled in her pop culture persona and female sexuality and it was this that allowed her to embrace the ideals of the Pop Art movement, whilst most women artists shied away from it.
Golden Nude (1959) is one of very few works of this title that Boty executed during her studies at the Royal College of Art. Important early works, they are self-portraits that highlight Boty's early love of Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). Particularly appealing to the young art student were Bonnard's stylised decorative qualities combined with his bold use of colour, assembled in areas of pure colour. Mid-stride with right arm raised and head slightly bowed, Boty's nude traverses what appears to be a bedroom. This space and the figure are rendered in loose brushstrokes in a soft palette of golds, ochres, yellows and browns which blend and overlap. Boty's handling of light and colour in Golden Nude echoes the mystic qualities attributed to the Nabis group of painters of which Bonnard had been a member.
Coupled with the ambiguity of the nude's movement, the overall effect is one of a moment captured within a hazy dream. As Pauline Boty herself said in her interview with Ken Russell in 'Pop Goes The Easel' for BBC arts series Monitor (broadcast 1962): "I've always had very vivid dreams and I can remember them very, very easily. [For my works] I often take the moment before something is actually happened and you don't know if it's going to be terrible or very funny." The work captures a brief and extremely private moment in Boty's life, something she had no qualms about enjoying and publicly displaying, despite how scandalous 1950s Britain regarded nude female self-portraiture.
Golden Nude shows the audacity and cheekiness that would characterise all of Boty's work to come. Branded as ‘risqué’ during her lifetime, Boty is now recognised as a pioneer of 1970s feminism. Her tragic premature death from cancer in 1966 prevented Boty from growing further into the great promise she showed during her short career.
During her short lifetime Pauline Boty made little over thirty oil paintings many of which are in important Pop Art collections around the world and in permanent collections such as Tate, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Muzeum Sztuki Łódź (Grabowski collection); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Berardo Collection), Lisbon; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC.
Golden Nude (1959) is one of very few works of this title that Boty executed during her studies at the Royal College of Art. Important early works, they are self-portraits that highlight Boty's early love of Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). Particularly appealing to the young art student were Bonnard's stylised decorative qualities combined with his bold use of colour, assembled in areas of pure colour. Mid-stride with right arm raised and head slightly bowed, Boty's nude traverses what appears to be a bedroom. This space and the figure are rendered in loose brushstrokes in a soft palette of golds, ochres, yellows and browns which blend and overlap. Boty's handling of light and colour in Golden Nude echoes the mystic qualities attributed to the Nabis group of painters of which Bonnard had been a member.
Coupled with the ambiguity of the nude's movement, the overall effect is one of a moment captured within a hazy dream. As Pauline Boty herself said in her interview with Ken Russell in 'Pop Goes The Easel' for BBC arts series Monitor (broadcast 1962): "I've always had very vivid dreams and I can remember them very, very easily. [For my works] I often take the moment before something is actually happened and you don't know if it's going to be terrible or very funny." The work captures a brief and extremely private moment in Boty's life, something she had no qualms about enjoying and publicly displaying, despite how scandalous 1950s Britain regarded nude female self-portraiture.
Golden Nude shows the audacity and cheekiness that would characterise all of Boty's work to come. Branded as ‘risqué’ during her lifetime, Boty is now recognised as a pioneer of 1970s feminism. Her tragic premature death from cancer in 1966 prevented Boty from growing further into the great promise she showed during her short career.
During her short lifetime Pauline Boty made little over thirty oil paintings many of which are in important Pop Art collections around the world and in permanent collections such as Tate, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Muzeum Sztuki Łódź (Grabowski collection); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Berardo Collection), Lisbon; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC.