Description
Book SynopsisThe first biography of pioneering female Pop Artist Pauline Boty.
Trade Review“The Pop artist Pauline Boty was a mysterious beauty glimpsed in glossy British magazines, her work obscured by that beauty, her output cut short by her early death. Marc Kristal’s exceptional biography brings back to life one of the most compelling figures of sixties London. With exceptional research, intelligent empathy, a talent for contextualizing those times of change and a felicitous style, he brings the many tragedies of her story and the delicious inventions of her oeuvre into full and rewarding focus. One of the best books of its kind I have ever read.”
-- Joan Juliet Buck (author)
“How wonderful that one of those exciting and innovative women artists of the 60s should be recovered and celebrated in this way.”
-- Julie Christie (actress)
"All the years of [Marc’s] work…have made a book that captures the meaning of Pauline’s life and work as exactly as is possible." -- Caroline Coon (painter)
"An astonishing, rich examination of a personality, a character completely thorough and balanced…The descriptions are vivid and faultless in tone and detail…Right in so many ways about [Boty’s] feminism and its ambiguities. A brilliant job."
-- Richard Hollis (graphic designer)
“I so enjoyed this… Manages to balance the artist, time period and personal life in a very engaging and original way.” -- Lynn Horsford (film producer)
“The book brings Pauline back. I feel I know her now – her secrets, her excitements, her fears, the guys, the painting, the running away, the going forward. Marc Kristal is a magician, who remakes a time, and gives the people in it life again. I thought it was terrific.” -- Michael Lindsay-Hogg (director)
“Moving, tenderly handled and illuminating… What has clearly been a labour of love.”
-- Poppy Luard (production designer & art director)
“I thoroughly enjoyed the book… Most of Pauline’s life and the development of Pop Art was new to me and I found it completely absorbing… The book is very nostalgic and brought the Cromwell Road scene back with a bang.”
-- Margaret Matheson (film producer)
“I am mightily impressed with [the] storytelling, the ease and forward-motion of [the] lively prose, and of course the tales of all three protagonists.” -- Gordon Rogoff (theatre director & critic)
“In this absorbing biography, a vivid collage of voices, and a masterfully written narrative, combine to restore to prominence the life and work of an entirely remarkable woman.”
-- Gay Talese (author)
"Wonderfully evocative…This book brings Boty to life: brave, flirty and fizzing with promise."
-- Laura Freeman, The Times of London
“..a rich retelling of the short but intense career of this once-overlooked British Pop artist… an excellent portrait of a vital moment in culture. Kristal has devoted extensive research to the artist’s life and work, interviewing many contemporaries and sifting through copious archives. He has vividly reimaged the artistic milieu of the time, interspersing Boty’s biographical details with voices from the past, including the artist’s own writings.”
-- Jonathan Bell, Wallpaper
“A valuable and unusual addition to the literature on British Pop Art – and a necessary counterweight to the male domination of the movement.”
-- Marco Livingstone (art historian)
“Kristal’s book is a study of the fascinating, now distant ambiance of 1960s London, as well as of a unique figure from that time.”
-- Martin Gayford, The Spectator * The Spectator *
"A fascinating, informative, and illustrated biography... exceptionally well written and presented." * Midwest Book Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1 SUBURBAN GIRL
2 WIMBLEDON BARDOT
3 AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PART 1 ‘The Place’
4 AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PART 2 ‘Technicolor’
5 AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PART 3 ‘La Boty’
6 AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PART 4 ‘Capital-P Pop’
7 AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PART 5 ‘To think I’ve got someone like that for a daughter!’
8 HELLO, CRUEL WORLD
9 THE ART OF ACTING
10 BREAKTHROUGH
11 BREAKOUT
12 ‘A VERY CONFIDENT MAN’
13 PERSONALITY ON TRIAL
14 PAULINE’S CHOICE
15 JOURNEY’S END
16 GONE
Epilogue: Nothing Left in the World
Index
Acknowledgements
Picture credits
