Joe Tilson - The software chart questionnaire - The Magazine of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (May/June, 1968)

Took a punt on this seeing as it was reasonably priced online. The best feature is undoubtedly Joe Tilson's 'software chart questionnaire'. It reminds me of the art/text intersection explored by New Worlds magazine from the same period. I looked up the forthcoming 'book' mentioned on the final page but it turned out to be a plush portfolio of prints, therefore way out of my price range should any appear for sale. Never mind. I'm very happy with these pages in the ICA magazine. 

Book: Art Of The Sixties 4th Revised Edition (1970)

As I said to LJ the other day having pulled this beast off the shelf, you don't so much read as wrestle with it, such is the weight and design involved. The metal bolts make fully opening the pages impossible - ha-ha - it's more like a Situationist prank than an art book (yes, you could have both. The ICA produced a book on the Situationists with a sandpaper cover - perfect for rubbing up fellow occupants of the bookshelf the wrong way). 

Tipped in colour plates add a 'handmade' feel and the transparent plastic overlays of portraits of the artists lend it another odd quality. Working front to back the first thing you see it the artist imposed on his/her work, creating a kind of integration found in no other book (I'm guessing). I may have featured this book before but since I've been looking at it again I thought I'd upload some more photos. Because of the design, it's not easy to photograph but I hope you enjoy this peek inside. Not sure of the going price but I got mine for a reasonable sum...back when I could afford a 'reasonable sum'!  

 

The REAL Independent Group

Much to my annoyance, several Labour MPs have splintered off to form what they call the Independent Group. It should not bother me at all, but I consider it criminal with regards to the real Independent Group formed in London, 1952, which comprised of: 

Richard Hamilton, 

Nigel Henderson, 

John McHale, 

Eduardo Paolozzi

William Turnbull

Lawrence Alloway,

Rayner Banham,

Colin St John Wilson, 

Alison and Peter Smithson.

There's scant decent coverage of Art on the TV, never mind proper documentation of important aspects of 20th century Art in Britain such as the IG. They were instrumental in advancing Art, Science, Architecture and Design in a post-war Britain trying to drag itself out of the gloom towards a brighter, more progressive future that would finally bloom in the 60s. Now I have to put up with 'the Independent Group' being mentioned on TV as part of the political debacle that is Westminster today. Huh!

Another Pop Art Book! This Was Tomorrow: The Invention of Pop Art in Great Britain

I didn't need another book on Pop Art. So I bought this...

It was in the window of the Kentish Town Oxfam bookshop, sealed. So I went in and perused the shelves, telling myself I didn't need another book on Pop Art. And this one wasn't cheap at £19.99. Like Chinatown, forget about it. I chatted to the woman at the counter, mentioning my dilemma. She said she'd ask the manager if the seal could be broken so I could have a look. He came out of the back room, took the book out of the window and tore off the cellophane, then placed it on the counter. They both looked on as I opened it up...oh!... 

...blimey!...

...sold!

What it lacks in word count, each chapter being relatively brief, it more than makes up for with wham-bam visuals, beautifully reproduced artwork...

Chapters on all the key players, plus Colin Self, who doesn't get enough recognition as far as I'm concerned...

This tie-in with the Kunstmuseum Wolfberg exhibition, the first in Germany to present 'a broad survey of the emergence and development of British Pop Art', apparently, is a big and, yes, sexy beast. If perhaps, like me, you thought you didn't need another book on Pop Art, think again.

Nova Express/Burroughs/Joe Tilson/Last Words

The William Burroughs art world connection. I'm sure there are quite a few, Basquiat springs to mind...

...so here are two pages from the Marlborough gallery catalogue for Jo Tilson's Pages (1970). I can't recall when I cottoned on to it's existence but as soon as I did I had to get a copy. It's cheap online if you look around. Although it's not in colour what makes it interesting are the pages which accompany the artworks, explaining their inspiration. You can also flick through it online here.

Art prints & text: Scream if you want to go faster! with Pop Art hot dogs

Hot Dogs, RTomens, 2017

"I won't go on anything that goes 'round 'n' 'round and up and down!" I told LJ as she tried to get me to go on things that went 'round 'n' 'round and up and down whilst we walked through the funfair on Sunday. the Giant Octopus? No! the Hurricane Jets? No! no, no, no! what a wimp I am - the dodgems (or 'bumper cars' as we always called them back in the day), however, were a joy. we had two goes.

loved Carters Steam fair - proper retro rides all the way & it felt like a thoroughly 'English' experience just because it was retro right down to the 50s & 60s music being played which, by the way, was mostly American due to the Anglo-American Pop marriage of the time - talking of which, Ken Russell's film, Pop Goes The Easel sprang to mind, featuring as it does British Pop Art stars of the day visiting a funfair...&, you might have noticed - & I might say, Pop Art's pretty influential in my work, some of it anyway...

Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty & Peter Blake

we can argue which side of the pond Pop Art started til the moo cows come home but you know Paolozzi and Hamilton were early birds, so too was Ray Johnson in the US, I suppose. American culture (pulp, film, comics, commerce) influenced the Brits but as usual the Americans did it bigger & in greater volume (well, it's a bigger country...& they're louder!)

So regarding these images, they're sort of a Pop art homage to the funfair & the artists of olde (including Sigmar Polke, as you can see, although I've treated them my own way, I like to think). all created from photos I took on the day..................

Scream if you want to go faster, RTomens, 2017

Chairoplane, RTomens, 2017

we even ate hot dogs, which I hadn't done since we used to emerge from Soho's Wag Club early Tuesday morning in the 80s full of beer (and Jazz) in need of food, any food, so hot dog vendors were a blessing. the ones we ate on Sunday were tasty too. 

hot dogs in Pop Art...

The Lines were Etched Deeply on the Map of her Face, James Rosenquist, 1962

Five Hot Dogs, Wayne Thiebaud, 1961

here's Ken Russell's film. well worth watching...