Blimey!: From Bohemia to Britpop : The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst [Paperback]

Matthew Collings (Author), Matthew Collins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1901785009 | ISBN-13: 978-1901785005 | Publication Date: January 1998 | Edition: 2nd

From the anguished, screaming, tortured canvases of Francis Bacon to the witty, ironic, twirling, sliced farmyard animals of Damien Hirst, Matthew Collings guides us merrily through art's Yellow Pages. "Matthew's wired and rushy art history, alternately irritating and insightful, gives late 20th century BritArt what it needs--a confusing, loony relevance".--David Bowie.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This unusual volumeApart art history, part journalism, and part diaryAoffers a crash course on the Pop Art scene in London from roughly the Sixties onward and does so with intelligence and humor. Collings has spent his life in this artistic environment, and he writes with an insider's ease. In an engaging mix of anecdote, critique, and discussion, he presents a somewhat wild potpourri of the lives, unusual habits, and creations of such individuals as Damien Hirst, John Stezaker, R.B. Kitaj, and David Hockney, to name only a very few. Along the way he takes a look at various trends from Shock Art to Pop to the School of London, including the philosophies of each as well as a descriptive sampling of the works of their various adherents. Lavish illustrations range from the beautiful to the strange to the shocking. Don't let the breezy tone fool youAthis book is filled with a wealth of solid information. Recommended for all contemporary art collections.ACarol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: 21 Pub; 2nd edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901785009
• ISBN-13: 978-1901785005
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT VISUALLY, INCREDIBLY SELF-STROKING OTHERWISE., October 16, 1999

By 

J. L. Roberson "jlroberson" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blimey!: From Bohemia to Britpop : The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst (Paperback)

I recommend this for the photos, almost completely. And I do not mean the cover photo where the author, Matthew Collings, has chosen to put a huge picture of himself with an eye-trapping bullseye painting behind his head. This mystified me, till I read the incredibly disorganized, ungrammatical account Collings writes, really more of a reminiscence than a history. Along the way he attacks the brilliant R.B. Kitaj and the rest of the School of London(including those such as Bacon and Freud) as "a bunch of oldsters exhibiting their charcoal life drawings and stuff." Incisive commentary that. Collings must make Robert Hughes tremble. Basically this is one huge self-promotional book, but generously illustrated with works of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin and others from the infamous and brilliant SENSATION show, and contains, in spite of its obnoxiously chatty style, many interesting anecdotes about the London art world. One can almost piece it together despite the annoying narrator. The current London art scene is beautifully dangerous and the SENSATION Show(and I hope its catalog goes into print in the US soon)may be, in the end, as influential as the 1913 Armory Show, so it deserves study. Art needed back some kind of edge. The book is an OK intro to the subject and the photos alone justify purchase.

My only other complaint is the constant recurrence of those completely nightmarish perversions of conceptual art, the "living sculptures"(or charlatans, as I like to call them) Gilbert and George, laced oddly throughout the book for no apparent reason. What do they do? In a nutshell, they go about and place themselves in context, in photos or live. Why they think they're interesting wherever they're placed, or make a place interesting by their presence, is beyond me, but they've apparently made a great deal of loot from this. Go figure. John Roberson

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight but fun, December 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blimey!: From Bohemia to Britpop : The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst (Paperback)

The chattiness is fine. I haven't seen Collings on television but I can imagine how he'd be entertaining there. I wondered about his motives a few times when Collings' own paintings showed up deep in the background of photos -- obviously he's so deep in this world that he may have some agendas. But the overall impression is certainly friendly and the few artists he dismisses are big enough to take it. It's a fun book you can read in a couple of hours. The only problem then is remembering any of what's been said.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the arts SHOULD be fun!, April 20, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blimey!: From Bohemia to Britpop : The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst (Paperback)

An informative, entertaining and often hilarious overview of the post-WWII London art scene. Included throughout are photos of many of the artists mentioned and examples of their work. As opposed to most art books this one isn't the least bit tedious, the author injects it thoroughly with his lively personality and brings out the fun, playful side of the arts (for a change). I couldn't put it down!