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Allen Jones

Born in Southampton, 1937.

Jones studied at Hornsey College of Art and then the Royal College of Art from 1959- 60 from which he was expelled for 'excessive independence'. He lived in New York in 1964/65 and then became Tamarind Lithography Fellow in Los Angeles. A painter, printmaker and sculptor he was prominent among the 1960s Pop Art group; he was influenced by the writings of Nietzsche, Freud and Jung and the imagery of commercial art.

Jones’ work has often courted controversy, particularly owing to his penchant for depicting women in erotic and sexually submissive roles. It was during his stay in New York that he began to use imagery from popular magazine illustration, like many of his fellow Pop artists of the day. The substantial body of work arising out of this explored erotic and sado-masochistic themes, the most explicit of which were his life-size, fibre glass sculptures in which women in fetishist costumes are turned into items of domestic furniture (e.g. Chair,1969, Hat Stand and Table,1970).

For five decades his work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK, Europe and the USA. Three major retrospective exhibitions have been held at the Barbican Gallery, London in 1995, featuring his graphic works, a 75th birthday tribute in 2012 at the Kunsthalle Tübingen in 2012 and a wide-ranging survey of past and recent work at the Royal Academy, London in 2014/2015.

His work is represented in most of the major public collections in the UK and many key national and civic collections in Europe and the USA.

 

Portrait 3
Untitled (Variation 1)