A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense: Derek Boshier at the Robert Fraser show

Feb 16th, 2015

//Sam Spade, Derek Boshier, 1966, on the back wall of this recreation of the office at Robert Fraser Gallery, Duke Street, London W1//

Derek Boshier’s 1966 work Sam Spade is given prominence in A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense, the exhibition dedicated to the connoisseurship of the late art dealer Robert Fraser.

Boshier was a client until he foreswore painting for a decade or more in 1968. This was a particularly difficult period for Fraser, who was jailed over the infamous Redlands drug bust at Rolling Stone Keith Richards’ house the previous year.

//From Pace’s exhibition guide. The work in the background looks to be another of Boshier’s from the Sam Spade period//

Boshier has recounted how he became so frustrated over Fraser’s unwillingness to pass on payments in the 60s that he and his friend, the poet Christopher Logue, once broke into the Duke Street gallery and retrieved works Fraser had refused to release in lieu.

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Just as the independent labels and self-published fanzines Paul Gorman chronicles built their own alternative economies outside the mainstream music industry, today's digital subcultures are experimenting with decentralised currencies that move value without banks or borders. Part of that wave has reached the world of sports and casino entertainment, where crypto-friendly wagering has found a particularly enthusiastic audience in Turkey under the name bitcoin bahis —a form of play that lets users stake and cash out with digital coins rather than conventional payment rails. Anyone tempted to try it should treat it strictly as entertainment, stake only money they can afford to lose, and first confirm the platform's licensing as well as the gambling rules in force in their own country.

Tags: A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense, Andy Warhol, Brian Clarke, Christopher Logue, Francis Bacon, Harriet Vyner, Jann Haworth, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Richards, Peter Blake, Redlands, Richard Hamilton, Robert Fraser, Sam Spade, Zeev Aram

Tender + tough: Jean-Francois Carly’s Surrender After portraits

Feb 12th, 2015

//Rebecca. Photo: Jean-Francois Carly//

//Ale. Photo: Jean-Francois Carly//

Surrender After is the title of photographer/director Jean-Francois Carly’s show of nudes opening at Forge & Co in east London next week.

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Tags: Forge & Co, Jean Francois Carly

Roberta Bayley x Richard Hell x Jake Riviera + 1 Cadillac Eldorado = Road Trip USA in the new GQ

Feb 9th, 2015

//Polaroids taken on the journey by Bayley courtesy of the NYU Richard Hell Archive//

//Opening spread of my feature in GQ UK March 2015//

“I’m forever grateful for Jake for giving us the opportunity. It was magical that he wanted to encourage Roberta and me to use our abilities in a new way. Just another example of his beautiful style.”
Richard Hell

The new issue of GQ UK contains my piece about the quixotic 1980 US road trip undertaken by Roberta Bayley and Richard Hell in a Cadillac Eldorado belonging to Jake Riviera (who conceived and sponsored the journey).

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Tags: 1980, Cadillac Eldorado, GQ, Jake Riviera, NYU, Richard hell, Roberta Bayley

Started in 1986, recently completed portrait of Thea Porter celebrates show at London’s Fashion & Textile Museum

Feb 6th, 2015

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//Thea Porter by Penny Slinger//

There’s a nice story behind this portrait of the late fashion designer Thea Porter, whose talents are celebrated at the just-opened exhibition at London’s Fashion & Textiles Museum.

During preparations for the exhibition and the accompanying book, the curator and fashion historian Laura McLaws Helms visited British artist Penny Slinger, who had made feathered masks and modeled in a catwalk show for Porter in the early 70s.
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Tags: Blum & Poe, Fashion & Textile Museum, Hayward Gallery, History Is Now, Laura McLaws Helm, Penny Slinger, Thea Porter, Tokyo

Talking Interiors with The Photo Kid tonight: International Orange – When Attitudes Become Form

Feb 4th, 2015

Looking forward to this evening’s lecture by designer Ben Kelly at his alma mater, the Royal College Of Art.
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Tags: Ben Kelly, Royal College Of Art

Jaunty: Barry Plummer’s striking photos of Malcolm McLaren + Vivienne Westwood in the Wild West End spring 1979

Feb 3rd, 2015

//McLaren specifically requested Plummer photograph him outside 7 Denmark Street, London WC1; Tin Pan Alley Club was one of the centres of Britain’s music business dating back to the 30s: “Some lads came along and Malcolm was pulling up his kilt in good-natured fun.” Photo: © Barry Plummer//

These jaunty photographs were taken by Barry Plummer in the spring of 1979 for a Melody Maker interview with Malcolm McLaren about the just-released soundtrack for the Sex Pistols’ biopic The Great Rock N Roll Swindle (beset by financial and creative difficulties, the film wasn’t released for another year).

McLaren was accompanied by Vivienne Westwood; they made a striking pair in mixed and matched one-off and traditional pieces with a selection of clothing from their King’s Road shop Seditionaries. By now the transition away from punk – left behind when the Sex Pistols split a year earlier – was becoming evident.

//Westwood and McLaren looking the bomb at the entrance to 98 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1, home to McLaren’s management company Glitterbest. Photo © Barry Plummer//

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Tags: 98 Shaftesbury Avenue, Barry Plummer, Buzzcocks, Cafe Royal, Centre Point, Denmark Street, Glitterbest, Melody Maker, Seditionaries, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Tin Pan Alley Club, Vivienne Westwood

Highly recommended: The unpindownable John Pidgeon’s blog

Feb 2nd, 2015

//”This photograph was taken by Chris Morris in my bedroom at Commonwood Cottage in Downley village near High Wycombe in 1965 (when I swapped my mod life for university). I’m wearing an almost unwearably itchy John Stephen herringbone wool shirt. Apart from the Ricky Tick poster, I’d permanently pasted up two vintage London Transport posters I found in the attic. My old man wasn’t too pleased about that”. From http://johnpidgeon.com//

//Front cover of Pidgeon’s 1974 book//

I highly recommend John Pidgeon’s blog; Pidgeon is another of those unpindownable figures in the cultural landscape. His considerable talents have been expressed from music journalism and magazine publishing through roadie-ing for The Faces and composing songs with their recently departed and already much missed keyboard maestro Ian McLagan to commissioning stunning design work from Barney Bubbles and producing BBC documentaries and radio comedy (and in the process promoting the talents behind hit series such as Dead Ringers, Little Britain and The Mighty Boosh).
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Tags: Colin Fulcher, Dead Ringers, Fred Fulcher, Ian MacDonald, Ian McLagan, John Pidgeon, John Stephen, Let It Rock, Little Britain, Panther, Petitjean, Ricky Tick, rocksbackpages, Rod Stewart, The Mighty Boosh

Ton-Up Boys + Girls, The Ace Cafe and the 59 Club: John “Hoppy” Hopkins’ favourite photographs

Jan 31st, 2015