Paul Gorman is…

For Jim Walrod – ‘Decoration is the danger, function is the idea’: The On 1st experiment in conceptual art retailing

Sep 27th, 2017

** This post is dedicated to the New York design thinker and doer Jim Walrod, who has passed away. Just a couple of weeks ago I mentioned my intention to post about On 1st to Jim over dinner. Of course, he knew about the store but was excited to see what fresh info I might have turned up. I’ll write about Jim when I have collected my thoughts; wherever he is, I am sure Jim will join us all in the necessary proclamation: Fuck Trump**

//At the entrance to 1159 1st Avenue at 63rd was Sven Lukin’s two-tonne illuminated sign. Photo: Bert Stern//

//On 1st interior including displays of Roy Lichtenstein wallpaper and Gerald Laing plates. Photo: Bert Stern//

In conversation this summer, British artist Duggie Fields revealed to me that, during a sojourn in the US in 1968, he had been in line to work at photographer Bert Stern’s “architecturally mind-blowing” art store/publishing house On 1st in Manhattan’s east side.

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Christopher Logue Poster Poems at Rob Tufnell September 30 – November 7

Sep 12th, 2015
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//Gone Ladies, with Ian Cameron, 1966. Off-set litho, 58 x 44.5cm,(edition size unknown). Published by Vandal Publications for Gear//

One of the exhibitions I’m most looking forward to visiting this autumn is London dealer Rob Tufnell’s presentation of the so-called “poster poems” produced by the late Christopher Logue.

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Marisol’s Love + David Parkinson’s image of Mona Solomons with SEX ankle boot

May 13th, 2014

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//Left: Love, 1962, Marisol. Plaster and glass (Coca-Cola bottle), 6 1/4 x 4 1/8 x 8 1/8″, MoMA. Right: From I Get A Kick Out Of You, David Parkinson, Club International, 1975//

A disturbing David Parkinson image from a mid-70s fashion shoot for British porn magazine Club International puts me in mind of the  early 60s sculpture Love by the artist Marisol.

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Derek Boshier in Pop Go The Women: The Other Story Of Pop Art

May 12th, 2014
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//”She was an instigator and an enabler.” Boshier discusses Pauline Boty in Pop Go The Women//

Catch if you can Alistair Sooke’s excellent BBC documentary Pop Go The Women: The Other Story Of Pop Art. Derek Boshier – subject of my next book – is among the interviewees, talking about his contemporary Pauline Boty.

Her work, like the other subjects of the programme, has been neglected in the circumscribed narrative of Pop. In Boshier’s words, Boty is important, not least because she was “an instigator and an enabler” to the male artists who hog the story on both sides of the Atlantic.

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//Boshier and Boty captured twisting in Ken Russell’s 1962 BBC documentary Pop Goes The Easel//

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//Rosalyn Drexler. In the background her 1967 painting Marilyn Pursued by Death//

The film’s revelation for me is the American Rosalyn Drexler, whose art is identified convincingly by Sooke as “scathing, critical, strong and stern”. Pop Go The Women is available to view on BBC iPlayer for the next five days here.

Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-Entry is published by Thames & Hudson next spring.

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Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-Entry – assembling the materials for long overdue monograph

Feb 5th, 2014
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//Exhibition cards and private view invitations, 1973 to date//

I’m assembling materials for Rethink/Re-Entry, the long-overdue monograph of the great British artist Derek Boshier I am currently editing.

The book takes its title from the early Boshier painting which inspired rock’s ultimate art-directed star Bryan Ferry to choose the name Remake/Remodel for the first track on Roxy Music’s game-changing debut LP.

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//Rethink/Re-entry, oil on canvas, 1962//

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Ian Harris’s hamburger shirt and the story of Strictly For The Birds

Jan 2nd, 2014

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My recent post about the Mr Freedom designs in the V&A collection sparked some memories from graphic artist Ian Harris, who sends this 1972 photograph of himself in a Mr Freedom hamburger print shirt:

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//Ian Harris with his then-wife Maggie, Brighton, UK, 1972. Ian Harris Collection//

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//Mr Freedom hamburger print shirt in the V&A’s collection. Note appliqué//

In the 1972 photo, the shirt’s hamburger appliqué is obscured; Harris had worked for Mr Freedom partner Tommy Roberts at his 60s boutique Kleptomania, and gave the late Roberts a number of items relating to his career a few years back. Included was the appliqué which Harris had kept for many years.

As Harris points out, his wife Maggie, a model, is sporting an Angie Bowie-influenced look in the photo above. Here she is in another early 70s shot, taken outside John and Lyris Mann’s Kensington boutique Strictly For The Birds:

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//Maggie outside 4 Holland Walk, Kensington, London, 1971. Ian Harris Collection//

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Pamla Motown returns with a new version of The Artist T-shirt

Oct 26th, 2012

//1975: Models Kathy + Jeremy in Artist tees at a New York fashion show.//

//2012: One of Motown's two new versions.//

Designer Pamla Motown – cherished for her contributions to 70s fashion with a run of sensational designs for Mr Freedom and under her own labels – is back with a new version of her graphic “Artist” T-shirt.

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In conversation with Antony Price at the Fashion + Textile Museum today

Oct 17th, 2012

This morning I’m in conversation with designer Antony Price as part of London’s Fashion & Textile Museum’s programme of events relating to its current Pop! Design Culture Fashion exhibition.

We’ll be talking about Antony’s career in the context of the British art school influence on these areas of popular culture. My visual presentation will also reference the work of others who emerged from the art school system, including design entrepreneur Tommy Roberts – the subject of my new book – and artist/designers John Dove and Molly White.

As a tribute to Roberts, London vintage queen Deborah Woolf is displaying this rare, stunning design from the first version of his and Trevor Myles’ pop art boutique Mr Freedom, at 430 King’s Road: a stars and stripes kimono-style dress.

Pop! Design Culture Fashion is on until October 27. Details here.

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‘Soho-Italianate’: Gordon Moore’s advert for Vince Man’s Shop in ARK magazine 1957

Aug 24th, 2012


This advert for Vince Man’s Shop – the small Soho boutique which sparked the modernisation of menswear design and retailing in the second half of the 20th century – was designed by Gordon Moore for issue 20 of the Royal College Of Art magazine ARK, published in autumn 1957.

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In conversation with Derek Boshier at Pallant House Gallery tomorrow night

Jun 27th, 2012

//Derek Boshier between his works Chemical Rocker and Chemical Pop (both 2008), Pallant House Gallery. Photo: Jason Hedges.//

Following his appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek this morning, I will be in conversation with Derek Boshier tomorrow evening at Pallant House Gallery, home to the excellent exhibition of examples of the artist’s engagement with music (and in particular his collaborations with David Bowie and The Clash).

Derek Boshier + Paul Gorman, Pop Music private view, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, June 22 2012.

//With Derek at last week's private view for his show and Peter Blake's Pop Music at Pallant House. Photo: Jason Hedges.//

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