Allen Jones

Biography

Allan Jones Background

Allen Jones is a British pop artist that is best known for his lithography, sculptures and especially his paintings. His amazing achievements in the world of art have earned him a great deal of recognition during his career. He is a Senior Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts and was awarded Prix des Jeunes Artistes in 1963 at the Paris Biennale. The piece of work that is the most known for is “Hatstand, Table and Chair”. During his career, he has taught at such establishments as Banff Center School of Fine Arts, the University of South Florida, and the Berlin University of the Arts.

Education

Jones is considered to be the first British pop artist. He was greatly inspired after attending a showing of Jackson Pollock’s work while he was attending Hornsey College of Art in London, where he was studying lithography and painting. He was also inspired by the works of Robert Delaunay. He graduated from Hornsey College of Art in London in 1959 and went onto the Royal College of Art, though he ended up being expelled after his first year here because the school was “horrified at the new developments brewing among their younger students.” Jones went back to Hornsey after signing up for teacher training courses and he graduated a year later.

Current Work

Though he is still active today in the art world, he was extremely popular during the British Pop art movement that occurred in the latter part of the 1960’s. His most popular works incorporate aspects of fetishism, especially for the psychedelic rock posters. A lot of his works have been turned into incredibly popular vintage art posters including his works “What do you mean What do I mean”, “What do you mean What do I mean (Head)”, and Diptych 1965. His works have been criticized very heavily some for its very sexual overtones, especially since a great deal of his vintage art posters have erotic imagery like rubber fetishism and BDSM. While he has received a great deal of criticism for this, he also received a lot of praise. Rather than focusing on the overtones of sexuality, his fans note about how rather than the works being sexist they are actually the exact opposite. They say that the women are primarily the dominant characters in his painting and lithograph works and that these works are a great contrast to his sculptures that tend to be a bit more on the masculine and misogynistic side.

You can purchase some vintage art posters here that will help you take home a few of the great works from this very talented artist. His talents are still greatly appreciated today as he has inspired such big names as Richard Nicoll, Alexander McQueen, and Issey Miyake. He is a prolific artist that had his most recent showing in 2015 at the Royal Academy of Arts, the same place that suspended him for being offensive all of those years ago. If you would like a piece of pop art history, you can purchase one of his vintage art posters here.