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Abstract
Significant aspects of American pop art are now understood as participating in the queer visual culture of New York in the 1960s. This article suggests something similar can be said of the British origins of pop art, not only at the time of, but also prior to, the work of the Independent Group in post-war London. The interwar practices of collage of the celebrity photographer Cecil Beaton prefigured those of Richard Hamilton in that they displayed a distinctively British interpretation of male muscularity and female glamour in the United States. (Homo)eroticism in products of American popular culture such as advertising fascinated not only Beaton but also a number of members of the Independent Group, including Hamilton. The origins of pop art should, therefore, be situated in relation not only to American consumer culture but also to the ways in which that culture appeared, from certain British viewpoints, to be queerly intriguing.
Notes
1 Dorsey, undated.
2 Alloway, ‘The Independent Group’, 52 and Curtis, ‘Tomorrow’, 27.
3 Hornsey, The Spiv, 248.
4 Hamilton, ‘Retrospective’, 188.
5 Whitham, ‘Science Fiction’, 62.
6 Alloway, ‘The Development’, 28.
7 Foster, ‘Notes’, 49 and Robbins, The Independent Group, 1990.
8 Stonard, ‘Eduardo Paolozzi’s’, 51.
9 Hebdige, ‘Fabulous Confusion!’, 104.
10 Myers, ‘The Future’, 68.
11 Stonard, ‘The “Bunk”’, 244.
12 Doyle, Flatley and Muñoz, Pop Out; Butt, Between You, 106–35 and Glick, Materializing, 133–60.
13 Chauncey, Gay New York.
14 Watney, ‘Queer Andy’, 25 and, see also, Loftin, ‘Unacceptable Mannerisms’, 587.
15 Doris, Pop Art, 151–2; Thomas, ‘Pop Art’, 989; Richardson, ‘Dada’ and Sontag, ‘Notes on Camp’.
16 Butt, ‘How New York’, 317.
17 Alloway, ‘“Pop Art”’, 1085.
18 Hammer, ‘The Independent Group’, 70.
19 Hunter, ‘Francis Bacon’, 11 and 15.
20 Spencer, Eduardo Paolozzi, 16.
21 Hammer, ‘The Independent Group’, 75.
22 Morphet, ‘Introduction’, 14.
23 Cowling, Surrealism, 83–4, no. 4.
24 Katz, ‘Dada’s Mama’, 142.
25 Katz, ‘Dada’s Mama’, 340.
26 Albrecht, Cecil Beaton, 13.
27 Banash, ‘From Advertising’, para 25.
28 Johnson, ‘Souvenirs’.
29 Harvey, ‘Where’s Duchamp’, 84 and Franklin, ‘Object Choice’.
30 Massey, Out of the Ivory, 59.
31 Schimmel, ‘Introduction’, 17.
32 Paolozzi, quoted in Spencer, Eduardo Paolozzi, 315.
33 Gibson, ‘Schiaparelli’, 54; Pepper, Beaton Portraits, 12; Francis, ‘Cecil Beaton’s’, 99–100 and Walker, So Exotic, 149–51.
34 Brown, ‘De Meyer’, 254.
35 Reed, ‘Design’, 396.
36 Reed, ‘Design’, 401, n. 38.
37 Reed, ‘A Vogue’, 59.
38 Reed, ‘Design’, 378. See also Cohen, ‘“Frock Consciousness”’, 161.
39 Danziger, Beaton, reprints an impressive selection of these materials but the plates section of this volume is largely unpaginated and references to specific scrapbooks are not given. The originals are held at the Sotheby’s Picture Archive in London but, owing to their fragile nature, were not open for public consultation at the time of writing (personal communication with Katherine Marshall, Sotheby’s).
40 Bengry, ‘Courting’.
41 Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook, 65.
42 Smith, ‘Richard Hamilton’s’, 31.
43 Quoted and discussed in Reay, New York Hustlers, 148.
44 Richardson, ‘Dada’, 549.
45 Bronski, A Queer History, 140.
46 Reed, Art and Homosexuality, 145; see also, Branchik, ‘Pansies’, and Lears, Fables.
47 Cole, The Story, 65.
48 Cutler and Cutler, J. C. Leyendecker, 14 and Joffe, A Hint, 39–51.
49 Turbin, ‘Fashioning the American Man’, 471, 482 and 488.
50 Bradley, ‘John Wanamaker’s’, 27.
51 Joffe, A Hint, 61–72.
52 Dennis, Daring Hearts, 52.
53 Jobling, Man Appeal, 127.
54 Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s New York, 16–17.
55 Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s New York, vii.
56 Howard, ‘The Life and Times’, 100.
57 Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s New York, 133.
58 Le Corbusier, The Decorative Art, 90.
59 Lord and Meyer, Art and Queer Culture, 96.
60 Ellenzweig, ‘Picturing’, 66 and Tamagne, A History, 252.
61 Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook, 34.
62 Clark and Dronfield, Queer Saint, 45–9 and letter of Peter Watson to Beaton, 12 December 1939, quoted in Vickers, Cecil Beaton, 231.
63 Massey, Out of the Ivory, 46–7.
64 Hornsey, The Spiv, 248.
65 Massay, Out of the Ivory, 58.
66 Crisp, The Naked, 152 (first edition 1968).
67 Stonard, ‘The “Bunk”’, 243, Fig. 32. For an example see Campbell, ‘In Times’, 138 with Curcio, Chrysler, 624 and 658, and Sherman, ‘Alexander’.
68 Lahti, ‘Dressing’, 191 and Bronski, A Queer History, 137, 145 and 150.
69 Bronski, A Queer History, 150 and Massengil, Quaintance, 128–9 and 164. See also Richlin, ‘Eros Underground’, and Wyke, ‘Herculean Muscle!’
70 Loftin, ‘Unacceptable Mannerisms’, 585.
71 Stonard, ‘Pop in the Age of Boom’, 618–19 and Fig. 28.
72 Ofield, ‘Wrestling’, 130.
73 Dyer, Heavenly Bodies, 178–86.
74 Snaith, ‘Tom’s Men’, 83.
75 Farmer, ‘The Fabulous Sublimity’.
76 Albrecht, Cecil Beaton, 16.
77 For other photographers see Brady, ‘Ambiguous exposures’.
78 Hearn and Melechi, ‘The Transatlantic Gaze’, 220.
79 Jarman, Dancing Ledge, p. 60 (first edition 1984).
80 Linkof, ‘Shooting Charles Henri Ford’, para. 14.
81 Hamilton, Painting, 17. Hamilton revisited his 1956 work many times, see Manchester, ‘Richard Hamilton’.
82 Leffingwell, ‘Introduction’, and email communications with Hannah Dewar, Tate Gallery, London, 8 May 2014 and Teresa Millet, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, 24 February 2015.
83 Butt, ‘“America”, 34.
84 Philo and Campbell, ‘Biff! Bang! Pow!’, 286.
85 Maharaj, ‘“A Liquid”’, 41–3.
86 Maharaj, ‘Pop Art’s Pharmacies’, 345.
87 Katz, ‘Dada’s Mama’, 353.
88 Martin, ‘J. C. Leyendecker’, 467.
89 Turbin, ‘Fashioning the American Man’, 480.
90 Linkof, ‘Shooting Charles Henri Ford’, footnote 14.
91 Linkof, ‘Shooting Charles Henri Ford’, para. 6.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dominic Janes
Dominic Janes is Professor of Modern History at Keele University. The work on this article was completed when he was Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of the Arts, London. His most recent books are Picturing the Closet: Male Secrecy and Homosexual Visibility in Britain (Oxford University Press, 2015) and Visions of Queer Martyrdom from John Henry Newman to Derek Jarman (University of Chicago Press, 2015).