In pictures: Pop artist Pauline Boty

2 June 2013

Untitled (Self Portrait), 1955. Image courtesy of the owner — Image caption,
Pauline Boty was a leading figure in the pop art movement of the 1960s. But she died aged just 28 in 1966, and her art was largely overlooked after her death. Now she is receiving her first career retrospective at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery. This self-portrait was painted in 1955 when she was around 17.

Untitled (Pears Inventor), c. 1959. Image courtesy of the owner

Boty studied at the Royal College of Art where she encountered the likes of David Hockney and Sir Peter Blake. She studied stained glass but preferred the paintings and collages she worked on at home, culling images from adverts, magazines and art catalogues. Pictured: Untitled (Pears Inventor), c. 1959.

Pauline Boty in Ken Russell's film Pop Goes the Easel

The embodiment of the swinging '60s, Boty was a dancer on Ready Steady Go!, played one of Michael Caine's girlfriends in the film Alfie and acted on TV and on stage at the Royal Court. She also presented an early weekly arts review on BBC radio, interviewing, among others, the Beatles.

A Big Hand, c. 1960/1. Image courtesy of the owner

Boty was one of four pop artists featured in Ken Russell's landmark 1962 film Pop Goes the Easel, but her looks and image meant she struggled to be taken seriously. In A Big Hand (1960/1), a female hand holds sculptural figures from Rome's Trevi Fountain above a Victorian park scene.

The Only Blonde in the World, 1963. Image courtesy of the owner. © Artist's estate/Tate, London 2013

Boty was fascinated with Marilyn Monroe, the subject of The Only Blonde in the World (1963). "Film stars... are the 20th Century gods and goddesses," Boty said. "People need them, and the myths that surround them, because their own lives are enriched by them. Pop Art colours those myths."

Portrait of Derek Marlowe with Unknown Ladies, 1962-3. Image courtesy of the owner

Boty painted the writer Derek Marlowe in Portrait of Derek Marlowe with Unknown Ladies (1962-3). In 1965 Boty became pregnant and was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer during a pre-natal examination. She declined chemotherapy because she feared it may harm her baby.

Count Down to Violence, 1964, Image courtesy of the owner

Boty died in 1966, just five months after giving birth. Her family stored her art in a barn after her death, but works like Count Down to Violence (1964) have been rediscovered by the art world in recent years. Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman runs at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery until 16 Novmber.

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