Lost and now found.....

Pauline Boty (6 March 1938 - 1 July 1966) was a pioneer of British Pop art who worked from the late 1950s through to her untimely death in 1966 at the age of 27. The following is a brief, visual historical chronology of her life, comprising photographs, images of her art, and a bibliography. It supplements previous work on this important, though long ignored, female artist. Since the initial compilation of this blog a special Pauline Boty - Pop art pioneer website has been created with the support of the family. Reference should be made to that site for the most comprehensive collection of information relating to this important artist.

Ann, June 1955. Watercolour and ink on paper.

[Girl in bath], 1957, watercolour on paper.

Lewis Morley, Pauline Boty, b/w photograph, circa 1958.

Pauline Boty, Self Portrait, oil painting, 1958.

Self portrait with cat, 1958.

Nude Woman in a Coastal Landscape, circa 1958.

Self Portrait in Stain Glass, 43 x 50 cm, circa 1958, National Portrait Gallery, London.

Pears Inventor, c.1959, collage, 7 x 10 3/4 inches. Estate of Jane Percival.

Untitled stain glass, circa 1960.

 Sheba before Solomon, stained glass, circa 1960.

Untitled (after Delaunay) 1960, gouache on paper.

Picture Show, collage, 1960.

A Big Hand, circa 1960, collage.

Untitled, collage, ?1960.

 Constable Titanic, collage, circa 1960.

Cinzano, collage, circa 1960.

Still Life with Paint Brushes, circa 1961, pencil, gouache and metallic paint, 40.5 x 52.7 cm.

Untitled, circa 1961.

A Happy Christmas, oil on canvas on card, 17.2 x 19.3 cm, circa 1960. Gift from Boty to Jane Percival.

Gershwin, 1961, oil on board.

Untitled, 1961.

Untitled, 1961.

Exhibition hanging, 1961.

Untitled 1961-2.

Untitled, collage and paint, circa 1961-2.

Elvis, collage and paint, circa 1962.

Buffalo, collage and oil on board, 1961-2.

 

With Love to John-Paul Belmondo, 1962, oil on canvas.

Pauline Boty, smoking, with Jean Paul Belmondo. Photograph.

Pauline Boty by David Bailey, Vogue magazine.

Sheba, circa 1962.

Sunflower Woman, collage and paint, circa 1962.

Below are a series of photographs featuring this work, by Lewis Morley (#1 & #2) and Michael Ward (#3).

Lewis Morley, Pauline Boty - Discreet. With Morley's blind-stamp lower right & archive number LMP 134 to reverse. Polaroid Transfer, 11x 8 cm.

Colour Her Gone, 1962, oil on hardboard.

Epitaph to Something's Gotta Give, 1962, oil on hardboard.

Walking in London 1962, photograph.

Still from North City Traffic Straight Ahead, ITV, 1962.

The Only Blonde in the World, 1963, oil on canvas.

54321, Oh, for a fu.., 1963, oil on canvas.

Scandal, painting, 1963. Lost work.

Pauline Boty holding Scandal.

Monica Vitti with Heart, 1963.

Pauline Boty painting in her studio.

Programme design for Day of the Prince, Royal Court Theatre, 1963.

Cuba Si, 1963.

Pauline Boty with Fidel Castro, circa 1963.

Tom's Dream 1963.

Celia Birtwell and Some of Her Heroes 1963. 

Below are photographs of Boty and this work in her studio, by John Aston and Lewis Morley.

Michael Ward 1963

Marilyn with beads,  1963. Photograph in her studio. Missing artwork.

My Colouring Book, 1963.

Three Woman in Bathing Suits, circa 1963.

Michael Ward, Pauline Body in her studio, September 1963.

Derek Marlowe, oil on canvas, circa 1963.

Countdown to Violence, 1964, oil on canvas.

Stage design for Act I, Scene I of 'The Balcony' by Jean Genet, c.1964-5.

What we need now to discover in the social real is the moral, watercolour, gouache, pencil, ink and collage, 54.5 c 74.7 cm, 1964, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

 What we need...., advertisement, Times magazine, New York, 20 November 1964.

It's A Man's World I, 1964, oil on canvas with collage.

It's A Man's World II, 1965, oil on canvas.

Big Jim Colosimo, oil on canvas, circa 1965.

Strangler's Web, 1965.

Bum, 1966, oil on canvas.

Christopher Logue and Ian Cameron, For Pauline Boty - Gone Ladies, poster, 45 x 58 cm, 1966.

Portrait by Michael Ward, no date.

References

Applin, Jo, Pauline Boty, Artforum International, 52(4), December 2013, 278.

Baker, Robb, Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics: A Sideways Look at Twentieth Century London, Amberley Publishing, 2015, 320p.

Birne, Eleanor, Pauline Boty at Pallant House, London Review of Books, 36(3), 6 February 2014.

Bracewell, Michael, The Only Blonde in the World [video], Tate Gallery, London, 2007. Duration: 4.40.

Crow, Thomas, The Long March of Pop: Art, Music, and Design 1930-1995, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2014.

-----, Painting Sensations: Pauline Boty / Bridget Riley, Paul Mellon Lecture, Yale Center for British Art, 4 April 2017. Duration: 1.16:48.

Curtis, Adam, Dream On - Pauline Boty and Clive Goodwin, BBC London, October 2011.

Drabble, Margaret, Friendly, glowing, bronzed, curious, eager, impulsive: the world was all before her, and she knew it'– The one that got away, The Guardian, 23 August 2014.

 
Durrant, Sabine, The Darling of Her Generation, The Independent on Sunday, 7 March 1993.

Edwards, David, Alfie girl Pauline Boty gave her life to save her baby but it was all in vain ... Katy killed herself with heroin, Mirror, London, 2004.
 
Etherington-Smith, Meredith, Remembering Pauline Boty - The Brit-Pop Bardot, Christies [blog], November 2017.

Hall, Harriet, She: A Celebration of Renegade Women, Hachette, 2018, 208p.

Hamilton, Adrian, Pauline Boty: The marginalised artist of British Pop Art is enjoying a revival, The Independent on Sunday, London, 22 December 2013. Review of exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

Hogg, Janice, Jewell Meaning, Belle, February / March 2013.

Hughes, John, Pauline Boty and Bob Dylan's first UK visit, Expecting to Rain [listserv], 14 May 2014.

Kokoli, Alexandra, Feminism reframed: reflections on art and difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2008.

Lebowitz, Rachel, 11 female artists who left their mark on Pop Art, Artsey.net [website], 2 December 2016.

Miles, Barry, London Calling: A Countercultural History of London since 1945, Atlantic Books, 2010, 300p.

Minioudaki, Kalliopi, Pop's Ladies and Bad Girls: Axell, Pauline Boty and Rosalyn Drexler, Oxford Art Journal, 30(3), 2007, 402–430.

Pallant House Gallery, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman [exhibition], Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex, 30 November 2013 – 9 February 2014.

Pauline - a suitable case for treatment (Parts 1-5), Kaput, Already [blog[, 2017-18.

Pauline Boty: Life and Work in Pictures, The Guardian, 28 April 2013.

Pauline Boty, the Anit-Uglies and Bowater House in Knightsbridge, Another Nickel in the Machine [blog], 20 February 2013.

Penier, Izabella, Muses, Mistresses and Mates: Creative Collaborators in Literature, Art and Life, Cambridge Scholars, 2015, 185p.

Rawsthorn, Alice, Tomorrow's Girl, Guardian, 19 June 2004.

Rosenberg, Karen, Overlooked no more: Pauline Boty, rebellious Pop artist, New York Times, 20 November 2019. Belated obituary notice.

Russell, Ken (director), Pop Goes the Easel, Monitor, BBC TV, 1962, duration: 44 minutes.

-----, The Manicured Manchurian, BBC TV, 1965.

Sachs, Sid and Minioudaki, Kalliopi (eds.), Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968. [exhibition catalogue], University of the Arts, Philadelphia. New York and London: Abbeville Press, 2010.

Scene, London, No. 9, 8 November 1962. Cover picture and article.

Smith, Adam, Now You See Her: Pauline Boty, First Lady of British Pop, 2002.

Smith, Ali, Pauline Boty: Blonde, Brilliant, Times Literary Supplement, 21 October 2016.

-----, The blazing comet that was Pauline Boty, Christies, June 2018.

Smith, Bill, The Only Blonde in the World, Latest Art, 2(Autumn 2006), 10–15.

Sooke, Alastair, Pauline Boty: The UK's forgotten pop artist, The Telegraph, 12 June 2013.

Spocchia, Gino, Pauline Boty: The female founder of British Pop Art, The Telegraph, 2 November 2018.

Stamp, Gavin, Anti-ugly: campaigning against ugly buildings may seem admirable, but a recent call for demolitions is based on philistinism, Apollo, January 2005.

Stummer, Robin, Mystery of missing art of Pauline Boty, The Guardian, 23 April 2013.

Tate, Sue, ‘Re-occupying the Erotic Body: The Paintings and “Performance” of Pauline Boty, British Pop Artist (1938–66)’ in Nick Rumens & Alejandro Cervantes-Carson (eds.), Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging, Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2007.

-----, “Forward Via a Female Past” : Pauline Boty and the Historiographical promise of the Woman Pop Artist’ in A.M. Kokoli (ed.), Feminism Reframed, Reflections on Art and Difference, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, Newcastle, 2008, 177–205.

-----, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Museum, 2013.

Tew, Philip, Riley, James and Seddon, Melanie, The 1960s: A Decade of Modern British Fiction, Bloomsbury, 2018, 352p.

Watling, Sue, and Mellor, David Alan, The Only Blonde in the World: Pauline Boty (1938-1966), [exhibition catalogue] Whitford Fine Art & The Mayor Gallery Ltd., London, 1998.

Elizabeth Wilson, [Review] Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Visual Culture in Britain, 16(3), November 2015, 365-367.

Wyver, John, The filmic fugue of Ken Russell's Pop Goes the Easel, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 12(4), October 2015, 438-451. 

Last updated: 7 August 2020

Michael Organ