Hogarth Goes Pop!

London A La Mode
Paul Hogarth and Malcolm Muggeridge
Studio Vista, London, 1966

Artist Paul Hogarth was a descendent of William Hogarth, well known chronicler of 18th century London's high and low life, and inherited his predecessor's skill at capturing the people of the capital at work and at play. His drawings possess a swiftness, capturing a moment or a face in the crowd before it slips away into the hubbub of Swinging London.

He teams up with Malcolm Muggeridge, the recognizable Catholic curmudgeon from the infamous BBC 'debate' on Monty Python's Life of Brian, though previously a bit of a lefty and former British spy, who here supplies a dry and detached text, occasionally satirical and with some interesting observations of the bustling metropolitan life.

Hogarth is perhaps best known for his designs on a long run of Penguin Shakespeare paperbacks, where his inky lines have a distinct character. Here he uses mostly pencil, reminiscent of some of Geoffrey Fletcher's London sketches, gathering some familiar places and faces (The Colony Room's Muriel Belcher, the Ace Cafe) with some more unusual angles and social commentary, somewhere between an art student's reportage sketchbook and a child's drawing. I challenge anyone not to be caught up in the lines and energy.

This is Modsville: note top Mod band The Action listed on the poster

Larging It

Creating in Collage
Natalie D'Arbeloff and Jack Yates
Studio Vista, London, 1970

I have quite a few old Studio Vista art and design guidebooks. Some are written by industry types for students and professionals, others like this seem written by and intended for the more amateur. The writers were a pair of old skool Hampstead bohemians who taught classes at the Camden Arts Centre when it was more of a down-at-heel community enterprise rather than the glamourous gallery space it is today.

The surrealists quickly grasped the potential for mental leaps and shifting associations in collaged media, and it remains a potent area for creativity in the digital age, though the images in this book were all designed using physical cut and paste technique. It's a relic of the past, as I was reminded looking at this page on Found Objects of another blog I used to write on some years ago.