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David Bailey's box of pin-ups

Photograph
1965 (printed and published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

David Bailey rose to fame as a fashion photographer in the early 1960s, his photographs. He published 'David Bailey's box of pin-ups' in 1965 as a loose portfolio of 36 portraits of the mainly-male fashionable elite that, as the cover description states, 'belong to Bailey's own world of fashion, pop music and the Ad Lib [nightclub]'. Each portrait is accompanied by notes by Francis Wyndham. Together, they constitute a celebration of the growing celebrity culture of the Sixties, and many of them have become the definitive images of key figures of cultural life in London during the Swinging Sixties.
Surprisingly, only four of the pin-ups are women, all of whom are models; as the notes explain, 'in the age of Mick Jagger, it is the boys who are the pin-ups'. Wyndham's commentary to this photograph suggests that 'the work of David Hockney has often been inaccurately described as pop painting: perhaps because (with his dyed yellow hair, his owlish spectacles and his fancy dress) he looks like a pop painting himself....'


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • David Bailey's box of pin-ups (assigned by artist)
  • David Hockney (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Half-tone print
Brief description
David Hockney, half-tone print from 'David Bailey's box of pin-ups', by David Bailey, published 1965
Physical description
Black and white portrait of the artist David Hockney, wearing dark glasses, a stripey shirt and holding his hands out in his jacket pockets so that he looks like he has wings.
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • David Hockney (Printed; Reverse, top left)
  • The work of David Hockney has often been inaccurately described as pop painting: perhaps because (with his dyed yellow hair, his owlish spectacles and his fancy dress) he looks like a pop painting himself... (Printed; reverse, top left; Wyndham, Francis)
Credit line
Given by Mark Haworth-Booth
Object history
David Bailey rose to fame as a fashion photographer in the early 1960s, his photographs. He published 'David Bailey's box of pin-ups' in 1965 as a loose portfolio of 36 portraits of the mainly-male fashionable elite that, as the cover description states, 'belong to Bailey's own world of fashion, pop music and the Ad Lib [nightclub]'. Each portrait is accompanied by notes by Francis Wyndham. Together, they constitute a celebration of the growing celebrity culture of the Sixties, and many of them have become the definitive images of key figures of cultural life in London during the Swinging Sixties.
Subject depicted
Summary
David Bailey rose to fame as a fashion photographer in the early 1960s, his photographs. He published 'David Bailey's box of pin-ups' in 1965 as a loose portfolio of 36 portraits of the mainly-male fashionable elite that, as the cover description states, 'belong to Bailey's own world of fashion, pop music and the Ad Lib [nightclub]'. Each portrait is accompanied by notes by Francis Wyndham. Together, they constitute a celebration of the growing celebrity culture of the Sixties, and many of them have become the definitive images of key figures of cultural life in London during the Swinging Sixties.
Surprisingly, only four of the pin-ups are women, all of whom are models; as the notes explain, 'in the age of Mick Jagger, it is the boys who are the pin-ups'. Wyndham's commentary to this photograph suggests that 'the work of David Hockney has often been inaccurately described as pop painting: perhaps because (with his dyed yellow hair, his owlish spectacles and his fancy dress) he looks like a pop painting himself....'
Bibliographic references
  • David Bailey's box of pin-ups, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965
  • P. 202 Walter Moser and Klaus Albrecht Schroder (eds), Blow-up. Antonioni's Classic Film and Photography Hatje Cantz, 2014. ISBN: 978-3775737371.
Collection
Accession number
E.2047:23-2004

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Record createdFebruary 11, 2004
Record URL
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