A matter of scale: New exhibition casts an intriguing and intimate light on Robyn Denny’s working practices

Oct 5th, 2019

//Maquette for Great Big Biggest Wide London, 1958. 5.6 x 61cm//

//Robyn Denny, 1961. Photo: Bernard Jacobson Gallery//

The late British abstract artist Robyn Denny is best known for his large-scale works, such as Great Big Biggest Wide London, the giant 1959 mural for menswear company Austin Reed’s Regent Street store.

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Tags: Austin Reed, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Dominic Denny, Great Big Biggest Wide London, Portuguese Airlines, Richard Smith, Robyn Denny, Royal College Of Art, the Beatles

Paul Gorman is a writer. This is his blog:
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Brother Michael has sent this photo of our old man

Brother Michael has sent this photo of our old man on joining up aged 18.

Somehow he managed to get an even bigger hooter after it was broken in a boxing match…

Tosach catha agus deinadh air

#philipdenisgorman
#gormans
#firstandlastinwar
#firstandlastinthebarmorelike

Today would have been my Dad’s birthday. I miss

Today would have been my Dad’s birthday. I miss him like mad, even though he died a lifetime - 44 years - ago.

The first is some kind of negative of him and two of his brothers in the 30s, doubtless taken in Hampstead.

The second is with him, our late sister Philippa and the very much alive thank god sister Joanna in north London. The bat on my T-shirt indicates this was 1966, since I was obsessed with Batman.

The third is on holiday in Cork with brother Timothy in the early 70s.

And the fourth is a sample of his spidery handwriting, which still has the capacity to make me well up. He left school when he was 12 and sold net curtains for a living. His friends called him ‘Patsy’ after his Irish roots and my mother called him ‘Staff’ because he’d been a staff sergeant. If she called him ‘Phil’ you (and he) knew there was going to be trouble.

I called him my old man to take the mickey since the age difference between us was so great - he was 56 when I was born - but he didn’t mind. He was bemused by the pop culture that consumed the rest of us (his favourite singer was John McCormack) and the dictionary definition of a gentleman, tougher than tough but always sympathetic and quite gentle in his manner, a kidder who loved to tease.

Tonight I’ll be not far from his mother’s Dublin birthplace so will raise a Guinness to his memory which will live forever in me.

I’m really looking forward to What About Dancing

I’m really looking forward to What About Dancing? at central London’s @thegardencinema on May 14.

The evening comprises screenings of three short films about grief made by the brilliant artists/filmmakers/writers @taradara, @anniefrostnicholson + @larahaworth:

• Into Your Light (Darby and Frost Nicholson 2019)

• All The People I Hurt With My Wedding (Haworth 2019)

• Grief Is A Hungry Ghost (Haworth and Frost Nicholson 2023).

Afterwards I’ll be mediating an in-conversation and Q+A with the three filmmakers on their shared and individual approaches, as well as their current project The Triumphant Return of Harriet Frost.

Do come along. Details and tickets are available from the link in bio. .

See 3 for an extract of the trailer for Lara’s All The People I Hurt With My Wedding (the WiFi dropped out at a fitting point!).

I found this in a folder while searching for somet

I found this in a folder while searching for something else - a previously unpublished interior of the Mr Freedom ‘department store’ which opened on three levels at 20 Kensington Church Street in December 1970.

I suspect this was taken by the artist @jonwealleans, who designed the interiors and facade of Tommy Roberts’ pop art boutique, including the Mr Feed’Em novelty restaurant in the basement.

I even wrote about the Charles Atlas display piece - just one of a number of what Tommy would call ‘nice bits’ - in the book but don’t recall seeing it in situ until now.

If I were to get a chance to reissue Mr Freedom, my book about Roberts’ career in design lovingly published in 2012 by @jenross’s Adelita Books, this would definitely make the re-edit.

#tommyroberts
#mrfreedom
#mrfreedomtommyrobertsbritishdesignhero

Very sad to note the passing of the great Bermonds

Very sad to note the passing of the great Bermondsey boy Keith Wainwright.

Always much more than a hairdresser, Keith From Smile was at the forefront of waves of British visual cultural developments.

He and his partner @pamla_motown_pamla - the first two pictures of Keith in her Mr Freedom designs are her’s - were extremely helpful when I was putting together my book about Tommy Roberts.

Keith gave me the George Hardie-designed Mr Feed’Em wine labels (3) as well as quotes which showed him as a great connector (4 + 5).

One thinks of @benkellydesign’s interiors of Smile in World’s End (6) or the credit on the sleeve of the first @bryanferry_roxymusic album (7) while Wainwright’s peace sign crop for @ianduryofficial’s appearance in the cover of 4000 Weeks Holiday (8) has particular poignance since this was the focal point of @barney_bubbles_estate’s final design before Bubbles’ untimely death in 1983.

#keithwainwright
#keithfromsmile

Incredible that next month marks the 10th annivers

Incredible that next month marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of I Knew Jim Knew, the book by and about the design enigma that was the late Jim Walrod.

This 2012 portrait captures Jim’s presence, while the book encapsulates something of his unusual spirit and energy - see slides 2 - 6 for the cover and spreads.

Jim died suddenly in 2017. A complicated and mysterious person, I often wonder about contemporary design and visual culture: What Would Jim Think? I also regret not seeing through Jim’s commission to interview Mark E. Smith about his home for @apartamentomagazine but hey, they’re both gone now and maybe it was never meant to be.

View links to my overview of I Knew Jim Knew from 2014 and my @creativereview obituary from 2017 in the bio.

@jimwalrod1
@andyspade

TBT: Down by the Spanish border 1989

TBT: Down by the Spanish border 1989

Always time for this. The pioneering photographer-

Always time for this. The pioneering photographer-stylist David Parkinson’s image for a piece on youth cults for Men Only magazine 1971.

Some of the clothes were from Paradise Garage at 430 Kings Road; the studded @lewisleathers jacket was Parkinson’s.

Designer Dinah Adams - who I pay tribute to in my forthcoming book Granny Takes A Trip: Dreams & Darkness in London, Los Angeles & New York - wears clothes of her own design.

#davidparkinsonphotographer
#paradisegarage
#grannytakesatrip
#grannytakesatripdreamsanddarknessinlondonlosangelesandnewyork

Poster invitation to the Tokyo launch of my book T

Poster invitation to the Tokyo launch of my book The Look at the opening of @paulsmithdesign’s Shibuya store, April 2006.

See 2 for The Look invite, 3 for details of Paul’s shop, which was on several levels and included an exhibition space where we showed photography from the book, and 4 for the location map.

Music: Smooch by Miles Davis from the compilation included with The Look and put together with publisher @jenr0ss and @jamestopham.

#thelookadventuresinrockandpopfashion
#adelitabooks

@granny.london is live and looking stupendous, rei

@granny.london is live and looking stupendous, reinvented as a sustainable label based around second life and upcycled garments and fabrics.

Check out the opening campaign via the link in bio

#grannytakesatrip.

Today would have been my sister Philippa’s birth

Today would have been my sister Philippa’s birthday; she’s on the right in this photo with @alising3 in north London way back when.

Philippa, who died in 2018, loved Cliff. One of the funniest/most excruciating nights of my life is when I took her to see him perform in the utterly mad production of Heathcliff.

When his character croaked Christlike on stage in the final scene, the mainly female audience of a certain age rushed towards the stage and collectively knelt in prayer. Really. Maintaining a vice-like grip on her arm I said through gritted teeth ‘Do not move.’

Even she balked when he repeatedly emerged from behind the curtains after the show with a wheelbarrow into which the fans threw teddy bears and bottles of wine. Really.

#philippamarygorman

Remembering Malcolm McLaren, who died on this day

Remembering Malcolm McLaren, who died on this day in 2010.

This is the then-Malcolm Edwards’ first national media appearance, in the Law Report of The Times in July 1966 after being arrested for attempting to set fire to the American flag outside the US embassy during an anti-Vietnam war demonstration.

He got to know his fellow offender Henry Adler pretty well; Adler was super-connected and introduced McLaren to a smorgasbord of underground activities and people, including the anti-psychiatrist RD Laing.

The 20-year-old Edwards was described as a sculptor and at the time renting a room from a friend of his grandmother’s, a Mrs Gold, in Finchley Lane, Hendon. I was dragged up in Hendon and always enjoyed talking to McLaren about the impact of suburbia on our lives…

#malcolmmclaren
#thelifeandtimesofmalcolmmclaren

With Anita Pallenberg @porteliotfestival 2007 afte

With Anita Pallenberg @porteliotfestival 2007 after our Let It Rock event.

See slide 2 first some answers to an interview I conducted with her the following year. Such smart beauty.

I gave Anita the Vive le Rock/Punk Rock Disco tee she’s wearing in the pic.

“I started taking portraits of people at The Fre

“I started taking portraits of people at The French House in the 70s when I took a picture of Gaston Berlemont. Then, while taking Spike Milligan’s portrait, we got to talking about Soho. At the time, I was living in Frith St, so Ronnie Scott’s and The French were both very familiar to us and, even then, both of us voiced our sadness at changes we saw – lovely delicatessens, independent restaurants and specialists shops closing down, all of which had been there for years.

“In 2004, I decided to document the customers at The French in earnest. For me, it was the one place in Soho that still held its Bohemian character, where people truly chose to share time and conversation, and I became aware that many I had once chinked glasses with were no longer around.

“These portraits of the regulars are a cross-section of those who sat for me, but there is no rhyme or reason to my selection.”

@johnclaridge8, 2017

TBT to me in 2004 and John Claridge’s documenting of the denizens of @thefrenchhouse.

It developed into the Soho Faces project (2) and featured among others Norman Ballon (3), Lisa Stansfield (4) and Sebastian Horsley (5).

All photos are (c) John Claridge; please credit if reposting.

Here’s a random selection of pages and spreads f

Here’s a random selection of pages and spreads from my book The Story Of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture, which was published by @thamesandhudson in 2017.

The book benefited immeasurably from the design of @vandling, the commission from Jamie Camplin and Sophy Thompson’s oversight.

It was an honour to present the editorial, design and photographic excellence showcased from 1980 - 1999 on the inestimable @nicklogan’s watch, including this random sample:

1) @elaine_constantine’s Sarf Coasting 1997

2) @shafrannigel + Richard Croft for Ruder Than The Rest 1991

3) Eamonn McCabe’s 1986 cover of a model in the late @stephen_linard95’s gold leather Johnson’s rocker suit

4) art director Phil Bicker’s mindbending 1988 club culture map

5) Corinne Day + Melanie Ward’s England’s Dreaming 1993

6) @oconnor.sinead by @juergenteller_ 1991

7) Buffalo coalescing around @jamie_morgan_photographer, @kaymontano, @trustjudyblame, Nick Kamen + Ray Petri in 1984

And 8) a particular favourite, Thomas Krygier for a 1992 Gavin Hills piece on Berlin’s underground clubs.

With @felixhoward by Jamie Morgan on the front (9), my preface (10) explained the roots of the book in the exclusion of Nick Logan from the V&A’s blockbuster British Design show of 2012…

#thestoryofthefacethemagazinethatchangedculture

Eostre/Ostara is risen… #lowermarshlife

Eostre/Ostara is risen…

#lowermarshlife

Here’s an Easter treat: Julian Allason’s stunn

Here’s an Easter treat: Julian Allason’s stunning photograph of the pioneering workwear/pre-vintage boutique Paradise Garage at 430 King’s Road in World’s End, Chelsea, west London.

The tower in the background was built as part of the redevelopment of the area which led to the creation of the neighbouring World’s End Estate (thanks @gillisosden).

The Paradise Garage staff were from left: designer @dianacrawshaw, manager Roly Poltock, owner @trevormylesstudio and sales assistant Lisa Petersen.

Myles’ tiger-stripe flocked Mustang in the foreground was decorated by @electriccolourco, which also realised the PG facade and interior.

The shop opened in the former premises of pop-art fashion store Mr Freedom, which Myles had run with his ex-partner Tommy Roberts, in May 1971.

This photo was taken by Allason a few months later; another from the same shoot appeared in the September 1971 issue of British fashion mag Harpers & Queen (see 2) along with a caption headed Paradise Garage: Up The Workers (section, 3).

In October 1971 Myles married Petersen and began to lose interest in the outlet. During their honeymoon, Poltock’s successor Bradley Mendelsohn gave over the back of the store to the ex @goldsmithscca student Malcolm Edwards
and his art school mates Patrick Casey and Niall Martin.

Within a few weeks Mendelsohn exited to tour Europe before returning to his native New York and Casey and Edwards, who quickly reverted to his birth surname McLaren, took over the whole store and converted it into Teddy Boy emporium Let It Rock.

McLaren called upon his school teacher girlfriend @viviennewestwood to apply her uncanny clothes-making skills to refurbing deadstock and creating fresh designs with him, and they were off on the adventures that culminated 10 years later in @viviennewestwoodworldsend, which remains at 430 King’s Road to this day.

I wrote about this photo session a few years ago, complete with quotes from the super-talented Crawshaw - there’s a link in the bio to that post.

If reposting this image please credit Julian Allason and me as the source.

#malcolmmclaren
#thelifeandtimesofmalcolmmclaren
#430kingsroad
#worldsendestate

Cards for the publication of Nine Lives with @mrgo

Cards for the publication of Nine Lives with @mrgoldie by @hodderbooks 7 November 2002. 📷 @rankinarchive

The book was very good-looking; we worked hard to make it so.

2. Fronts of the hardback and paperback (which came out the following year)

3. Backs of the hardback and paperback

4. The jacket folds activated Rankin’s photography

5 + 6. Going through G’s photo archive led to some exciting illustrations with appearances by such legends as Brim, Birdy, Vulcan, Bio + 3D.

7. My introduction

#goldieninelives

The holy grail of the story of Granny Takes A Trip

@listenhear2 outside Granny Takes A Trip at 468 N.

A trio of @sarahpannell’s great photos which app

A trio of @sarahpannell’s great photos which appear with my story on @jahnf_bless’s amazing Melbourne studio in @ton.magazine

In 2012 I worked on the production of the Royal Ma

In 2012 I worked on the production of the Royal Mail’s Great British Fashion collection of 10 first day cover stamps, advising on who should appear and the clothes to be used to illustrate their work with much of the supporting text stemming from The Look.

The list featured Hardy Amies, Norman Hartnell, Granny Takes A Trip (subject of my next book), Ossie Clark, Tommy Nutter, Jean Muir, @zandra_rhodes_ , @viviennewestwood , @paulsmithdesign and @alexandermcqueen.

Despite my best efforts, I failed to get the likes of Vince Man Shop, Tommy Roberts, Demob, Johnson’s, Soul II Soul (the shop), Malcolm McLaren and others onto the list since they were deemed too exotic for public consumption, though made sure that Mary Quant, Antony Price etc were mentioned in the text.

Anyway I was pretty glad to be involved and introduced the company to the likes of 20th Century Vintage so the illustrations would accurately reflect the originality of the designs.

In Fiorucci + white Levi’s (and no doubt Palladi

In Fiorucci + white Levi’s (and no doubt Palladium boots), Arles, 1987.

📷 @jenr0ss

I’m really looking forward to participating in W

I’m really looking forward to participating in What About Dancing: Three Short Films About Grief @thegardencinema on May 14.

These three affecting works result from collaborations between @anniefrostnicholson @larahaworth + @taradara, who address ‘the utopian possibilities of dance in moving through heavy grief, the queer sorrow, ambiguity and confusion of weddings, and the complexities of loss, activism and resistance among the Maes de Manguinhos in Brazil’.

As the filmmakers say, the films ‘trace a single narrative thread: the ravages of grief, loss, and disappointment, and how we make sense of them, through irony, despair, memory, detachment, absurdity, collectivism and humour’.

I’ll be moderating the q+a - come along for a much-needed evening of collective release and celebration in these dread times. Tickets from the link in bio.

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What About Dancing? Three short films about grief at the Garden Cinema on May 14 April 23, 2024
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A night of conversation, music + libation to celebrate Totally Wired at Reference Point July 26, 2023
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