There was, however, one artist on display whose name is well known to people of my generation – even non-comic-reading ones. That’s Bob Monkhouse, who was a high-profile game-show host in the 1960s and 70s. Before he went into TV, however, he worked in the comics industry for a few years. The “subversive” work on display consisted of a story he produced for a comic called Oh Boy in 1949. This features a superhero named the Tornado battling a villainous race of aliens, whose subversiveness consists not so much of their politics as their physical appearance – which, as you can see from the picture above, is distinctly penis-like (for other monstrous dicks on this blog, see Phallic Satire).
I had to use a picture I found on the internet, because there were signs all over the place saying that photography was forbidden. That struck me as a little ironic for an exhibition that claimed to be subversive. Even more ironic was the fact that visitors had to pay the blatantly capitalist sum of ten pounds to get in!
The other exhibition I went to was much better – Banksy, the unauthorised retrospective at Sotheby’s S2 gallery. This one was free entry and you could take whatever photos you wanted to. And for added subversiveness, just as the title suggests, the exhibit was unauthorised. In fact the artist not only didn’t authorise it, but he was reportedly disgusted that an event of this type was put on at all. Now that’s what I call a subversive exhibition!
You can find good quality images of all the works on show by clicking the link above. My favourite picture was Lenin on Roller Skates, but the most Fortean had to be the one with the flying saucers. Here is my own photo of the picture in situ:
9 comments:
Since Sotheby's is a corporation and Banksy is an individual artist, I think your concept of subversion is skewed. It's mainstream as hell to disrespect the rights and wishes of individual artists concerning their own work.
Your captcha thingy discriminates against the astigmatic. I can't read the houseplates because they're tiny and out of focus, not because I'm a machine.
Yes, my comments about subversion were meant as a joke - my weird British sense of humour again, I'm afraid!
I'm sorry about the captchas - they drive me mad sometimes too. They do cut down on spam comments, though.
I think seeing as how Banksy is known mainly as a graffiti artist, he really doesn't have a right to complain, Andrew. Tell you one thing - I'd never have paid a tenner to see Bob Monkhouse's d*ck. (Or anyone else's for that matter.)
Thanks Kid - you probably would have found more in Comics Unmasked to interest you than I did, but ten pounds is a ridiculous price to pay by anyone's standards. Another irritation for me was that the low light levels coupled with the fact everything was displayed inside glass cabinets made it very difficult to read anything with my middle-aged eyesight!
I read once that Bob Monkhouse had the largest private collection of Frank Bellamy original art - wonder what happened to it all when he went to glory...?
Interesting - I wasn't aware of that. A quick Google search for "Bob Monkhouse Frank Bellamy" shows that you're absolutely right, but unfortunately there's no indication of what subsequently happened to the collection.
I have had communications with Bob Monkhouse's daughter Abigail in the past and as far as I know she still owns the collection, as I haven't seen any pieces (besides two) come on the market since Bob Monkhouse's death
Hi Andrew, do you happen to have a photo of Banksy's flyng saucers in higher resolution than shown in this blog?
Hi Mihkel, I only just saw your comment. But unfortunately this is the highest res photo I have of that painting.
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