Pauline Boty

Pauline Boty was a founding figure of British Pop Art and one of its most compelling yet under-recognised voices. Born in Surrey in 1938, she studied at Wimbledon School of Art before entering the Royal College of Art in 1958, where she became the only female painter associated with the early Pop movement. Her emergence coincided with a period of profound cultural transformation, and Boty’s work stands out for its distinctive fusion of mass media imagery, personal symbolism and feminist critique.

In a field dominated by male artists, Boty’s paintings brought a bold, female gaze to bear on popular culture. Works such as It’s a Man’s World I (1964) and With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo (1962) blend vibrant colour with collaged motifs drawn from magazines, film and political reportage. Her art responded not only to the glamour and contradictions of 1960s media culture but also to contemporary political anxieties, including nuclear disarmament and civil rights.

Boty was also active beyond the canvas, engaging with London’s cultural scene through film, television and radio. She acted in theatre and appeared in Ken Russell’s influential BBC film Pop Goes the Easel (1962), which documented the emergent Pop aesthetic.

Diagnosed with cancer while pregnant in 1965, Boty refused treatment to carry her child to term and died the following year aged just 28. For decades her work was overlooked, but has since been reassessed as a vital, subversive contribution to post-war British art.