//David Bowie As The Elephant Man by Derek Boshier, 1980 © Derek Boshier c/o Flowers Gallery//

Today the National Portrait Gallery unveiled Imaginary Portraits, a selection of works by artist Derek Boshier, who is the subject of a monograph I am editing.

Prominent are two studies of David Bowie; an oil-on-canvas painting executed in New York in 1980 while Bowie was rehearsing for his role in Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man at the city’s Booth Theatre and a 1981 ink-on-paper drawing which resulted from Boshier’s design for the sleeve for the album Lodger a couple of years earlier.

//Outer gatefold sleeve, Lodger, David Bowie, RCA, 1979. Design Derek Boshier, photography Brian Duffy//

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Tags: Bernard Pomerance, Boston, Brooklyn, David Bowie, Gallery 360, Imaginary Portraits, Light Industry, Lodger, Lord Snowdon, Malcolm Morley, National Portrait Gallery, Paul Moorhouse, Royal College Of Art, The Elephant Man

//Top fellas and brushes in the 60s and 70s. Photos courtesy Tadhg Taylor//

For my money, Sharpies beat all other youth cults hands down, so news of the publication of the third edition of Tadhg Taylor’s Top Fellas is cause for celebration.

A few years ago on THE LOOK blog I explored the style and musical tastes of this unique subculture which blossomed among Melbourne teens from the 60s to the early 80s, and never tire of the clips from Greg Mcainsh’s 1974 documentary which captures the top fellas and brushes in the prime.

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Tags: Greg Mcainsh, Lobby Lloyd, Melbourne, Sharpies, Tadhg Taylor

//Clockwise from top left: Cover, Helen And Desire, 1970; George O'Dowd, photo: Richard Bevan, 2013; Carnaby Street book and Palisades swing tag, 1970 and 1966; front cover, Anarchy In The UK newsprint fanzine, 1976//

I’m involved in a couple of events which open in London this week: artist Lucy Harrison’s multi-layered project Carnaby Echoes in the West End and photographer Nick Knight’s exhibition Punk at his Showstudio space in SW1.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Anarchy In The UK, Binder Edwards & Vaughan, Boy George, Colt Studio, Culture Club, David May, Deal Real, Derek Boshier, Derek Ridgers, Duke Vin, Gallery International, George O'Dowd, Goodge Street, Hazel Albarn, Helen And Desire, I Groaned With Pain, Jim French, John S. Barrington, Keith Albarn, Kleptomania, Let It Rock, Lloyd Coxsone, Martin Cole, Miranda Sawyer, Nick Knight, Olympia Press, Sado sex For The Seventies, SEX, Showstudio, Smash Hits, Street Theatre, The Foundry, The Roaring Twenties, Vivienne Westwood