Posted on
2013-12-02
One of the few female artists associated with the British Pop Art movement of the 1960s alongside Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and David Hockney, Boty has been largely overshadowed by her male Pop counterparts since her untimely death aged just 28. This exhibition, which comes to Chichester from Wolverhampton Art Gallery, reinstates Boty at the forefront of the movement, featuring paintings, collages and ephemera from public and private collections including rarely seen pieces that have not been exhibited for 40 years.
The exhibition follows Boty’s artistic progression from her early experimentation with various media such as painting and stained glass to a series of sexually and politically-charged paintings and collages. It demonstrates how her oeuvre enriches the male-dominated sphere of Pop Art with a female perspective, exploring themes of female sexuality, gender, race and politics, and contemporary events such as the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of JFK.
Born in South London in 1938, Boty first studied at Wimbledon School of Art and then the Royal College where she met David Hockney, Sir Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips. Sociable, charismatic and popular, Boty was a striking figure, dubbed the ‘Wimbledon Bardot’ on account of her extreme good looks. Yet her glamorous appearance often meant that she struggled to be taken seriously, despite her passionate engagement with politics and the intellectual life of the college.
Exhibition runs through to February 9th, 2014
Pallant House Gallery
9 North Pallant
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 1TJ
pallant.org.uk
