Pauline Boty by Marc Kristal

The only blonde in the world

IT's a Man's World 1

‘Pauline Boty - British Pop Art’s Sole Sister’, by Marc Kristal, published by Frances Lincoln, 2023

I had heard of Pauline Boty, seen ‘The Only Blonde in the World’ at Tate St Ives and met someone who was at the Royal College of Art at the same time  as ‘the Bardot of Wimbledon’
so to me this new book about her is very welcome  - telling so much about her and showing  so many paintings which were rescued some time after her untimely tragic demise soon after her daughter’s birth.
Pauline had cancer and chose to put off treatment until after her baby was safely born, thereby inviting her own death 1966, aged 28.

Marc Kristal’s narrative flows well and transports us back to the 1950’s, when young women were admitted to the Slade on the attractiveness of their selfies, their portfolios ignored.

Pauline is often referred to as beautiful but I think it was more the case that she had an appealing vitality.
She was able to get onto tv, being  interviewed by Alan Whicker, appear in a Ken Russell film, and take on stage acting. She was a presenter on a radio arts program, The Public Ear’ and sharply criticised the later work of Elvis Presley. She had a bit part in ‘Alfie’
Waldemar  Januscek, before he became the lovable commentator on past art, as an art critic called her a bad, derivative artist whose reputation rested on being a dolly bird.
The author is not sure he can defend her and says, ‘the artist and flibertygibbet began, increasingly, to merge.’
One of the strengths of the book is however that Kristal spoke to a range of Pauline Boty’s friends and family so we get a rounded picture of her from bubbly extrovert to troubled lonely person.
His harshest remark is that she was a narcissist ‘ for what is creating a motherless child if not the acme of self-centredness?’

Pauline Boty brought her experience  as a woman into her pop art, especially in her paintings ‘It’s a man’s world’. The first is an interesting collage of images of men plus a symbolic flower possibly referring to her sex. The second uses images of naked women a la Playboy. Bravely done perhaps and intending not to endorse the degradation  of women but I think you can’t be feminist by imitating what you deplore. Maybe Pauline was in two minds about feminism.

This is  certainly a lively contribution to our understanding of a little known artist and of the era in which she lived.