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Table
Details
Allen Jones (B. 1937)
Table
painted fibreglass, resin, mixed media, glass and tailor made accessories
24 x 51 1/8 x 29 7/8 in. (61 x 130 x 76 cm.)
Executed in 1969, this work is from an edition of six
Table
painted fibreglass, resin, mixed media, glass and tailor made accessories
24 x 51 1/8 x 29 7/8 in. (61 x 130 x 76 cm.)
Executed in 1969, this work is from an edition of six
Provenance
Gunter Sachs Collection (acquired in 1969).
His Sale, Sotheby’s London, 22 May 2012, lot 15.
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.
His Sale, Sotheby’s London, 22 May 2012, lot 15.
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
A. Jones, Allen Jones Figures, Milan 1969, p. 94 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 71).
A. Jones and M. Livingston, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, London 1979 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, pp. 70-71).
N. Hodges and N. Robertson (eds.), Allen Jones, London 1993, p. 142 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 31).
L. Romain and D. Bluemler, Allen Jones, Künstler Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich 1993, no. 7, pl. 6 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 8).
T. Osterwald, Pop Art, Cologne 1999 (another example from the edition illustrated, p. 48; illustrated in colour, p. 49).
J. Heuman, Material Matters: The Conservation of Modern Sculpture, London 1999, fig. 77 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 74).
A. Lambirth, Allen Jones Works, London 2005 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, pp. 26-27 and on the front and back covers).
G. Sachs, Mein Leben, Munich 2005 (illustrated in colour, p. 385).
A. Jones and M. Livingston, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, London 1979 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, pp. 70-71).
N. Hodges and N. Robertson (eds.), Allen Jones, London 1993, p. 142 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 31).
L. Romain and D. Bluemler, Allen Jones, Künstler Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich 1993, no. 7, pl. 6 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 8).
T. Osterwald, Pop Art, Cologne 1999 (another example from the edition illustrated, p. 48; illustrated in colour, p. 49).
J. Heuman, Material Matters: The Conservation of Modern Sculpture, London 1999, fig. 77 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 74).
A. Lambirth, Allen Jones Works, London 2005 (another example from the edition illustrated in colour, pp. 26-27 and on the front and back covers).
G. Sachs, Mein Leben, Munich 2005 (illustrated in colour, p. 385).
Exhibited
London, Arthur Tooth & Son Gallery, Allen Jones Figures, 1970 (another example from the edition exhibited).
London, Royal Academy, Pop Art, 1991-1992, no. 136, pl. 157 (another from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 206). This exhibition later travelled to Cologne, Ludwig Museum and Madrid, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Pop Art, 1992-1993, p. 277, no. 91, pl. 180 (another from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 213).
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Gunter Sachs - Retrospektive, 2003 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Sixties! Art, fashion, design, film and photography, 2007.
Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Gunter Sachs, 2008 (illustrated in colour, p. 75).
Moscow, Museum Tsaritsyno, Gunter Sachs, 2009 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Tubingen, Kunsthalle, Allen Jones – Off the Wall, 2012-2013, p. 231, no. 1 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 16). This exhibition later travelled to UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte and Chemnitz, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Allen Jones RA, 2013-2015 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, pp. 62-63).
Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, This Was Tomorrow: Pop Art in Great Britain, 2016-2017, p. 412 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 276).
London, Royal Academy, Pop Art, 1991-1992, no. 136, pl. 157 (another from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 206). This exhibition later travelled to Cologne, Ludwig Museum and Madrid, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Pop Art, 1992-1993, p. 277, no. 91, pl. 180 (another from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 213).
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Gunter Sachs - Retrospektive, 2003 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Sixties! Art, fashion, design, film and photography, 2007.
Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Gunter Sachs, 2008 (illustrated in colour, p. 75).
Moscow, Museum Tsaritsyno, Gunter Sachs, 2009 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Tubingen, Kunsthalle, Allen Jones – Off the Wall, 2012-2013, p. 231, no. 1 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 16). This exhibition later travelled to UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte and Chemnitz, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Allen Jones RA, 2013-2015 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, pp. 62-63).
Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, This Was Tomorrow: Pop Art in Great Britain, 2016-2017, p. 412 (another example from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, p. 276).
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Further Details
Icons of Pop Art, Allen Jones’ Table, Chair and Hatstand are a subversive trio of sculptures created at the height of his career. Executed in 1969, the works were acquired that year by the pioneering collector, filmmaker and photographer Gunter Sachs, and remained in his possession for the next forty-three years. Doubling as purposefully provocative pieces of household furniture, three exaggerated feminine figures are contorted into subservient postures. Outstretched palms become the hooks of a hatstand, sturdy limbs become table legs, and raised, booted calves become the back of a cushioned chair. Illuminating the sexual undercurrents that ran through commercial advertising in the 1960s, their lithe, serpentine bodies recall the sinched waists and buxom figures of contemporary female pin-ups and Playboy bunnies. With their ashblond coifs, doe eyes shrouded in thick false lashes and thigh-high leather boots, these women might at first glance be mistaken for real, living figures. Upon closer inspection, their improbable features show themselves to be pure fantasy, first modelled in clay by the artist and later cast in fibreglass, coated in acrylic paint and clad with custom-made leather accessories. Soft, white, shag pile rugs form the resting ground for these bridled femmes fatales. Jones grew out of the wave of Pop Art that took Britain and the United States by storm during the 'swinging sixties'. It was a period of sexual liberation, with artists adopting images not only of mass produced commercial goods, but of pop culture's female icons. Like Tom Wesselmann’s celebrations of the Great American Nude, Andy Warhol’s tributes to Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor and Mel Ramos’ sun-drenched California Venus, the present works offer a commentary on the iconography of women and the material desires of the post-War generation. Laced with seduction and critique in equal measure, they capture the Zeitgeist of this revolutionary period.
A celebrated businessman, international playboy and contemporary art connoisseur, Gunter Sachs played a pivotal role in the 1960s European cultural scene. He counted Coco Chanel, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali among his close friends, and famously won the heart of his second wife Brigitte Bardot by flying over her St Tropez villa in a helicopter and dropping hundreds of roses into her garden. Known for his style, energy, charisma and creative flair, he was an artist in his own right – a noted filmmaker and photographer, who shot the first nude cover for Vogue in 1972 and worked with Claudia Schiffer in the early 1990s. His collection was born in Paris during his mid-20s, where he formed strong relationships with artists and gallerists and acquired major paintings by Jean Fautrier, Max Ernst and Victor Brauner. Surrealist artworks filled his home, as did important pre- and post-War furniture by Ruhlmann and Giacometti. Through his friendship with César, he met Arman, Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein, and became immersed in the burgeoning Nouveau Réaliste scene. In 1967, his collection was shown in the inaugural exhibition of the new Museum of Modern Art in Munich, with a catalogue introduction by Pierre Restany. Sachs was subsequently appointed president of the MAM association, and over four years transformed the museum into a leading platform for contemporary art. His meeting with Warhol in the mid-1960s fuelled his fascination with Pop Art, and he converted his penthouse suite at the Palace Hotel in St Moritz into a showcase for his growing collection of works by European and American exponents. Table, Chair and Hatstand were installed there, along with works by Warhol, Lalanne, Lichtenstein, Wesselmann, Arman and César. Sachs invited Jones and his wife to visit the apartment soon after he acquired the sculptures.
The 1960s was a period of radical change on both sides of the Atlantic, marked by a dramatic evolution in attitudes towards sexuality and gender. In Britain, the decade began with the publication of D. H. Lawrence's erotic, highly-charged and previously outlawed novel Lady Chatterley's Lover following the well-documented trial of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. In America, the new availability of birth control fundamentally changed attitudes towards women's sexuality and by the end of the decade John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their famous Bed-Ins for Peace. What would have been scandalous only a few years before suddenly became mainstream and permissible, providing a new context for Jones' wry appropriations of the female form. Schooled at the Royal College of Art, where Richard Hamilton was teaching at the time, he was one of a new generation of British artists – including his contemporary David Hockney – who began to challenge conventions and embrace their sexuality. Hamilton's Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? (1956) had already brought the buff imagery of American men's physique magazines and semi-clad sirens into the domestic realm, and this startling step arguably provided the context for Jones' Table, Chair and Hatstand. Underpinned by his fascination with Jungian and Freudian philosophies of self-discovery through creativity, the convergence of the quotidian and the sexualised would come to inform his oeuvre for the next two decades.
Like Hockney, Jones had spent time traveling around the United States in the mid-1960s, living in New York during the height of American Pop. It was here that he was first exposed to the vivid, often racy imagery in advertising and magazines; a far cry from the frequently staid ads and illustrations in Britain. Inspired by the work of his American contemporaries – in particular Lichtenstein's Girls and Wesselmann's Great American Nudes – Jones turned to similar sources for his paintings, adopting a bright, brazen, frontal manner akin to his colleagues. Looking to popular imagery, Jones sought to destabilise the banal, kitsch elements of consumer culture and exhume the tabooed depictions of the body, focusing his attentions on the representation of women. In the late 1960s, upon his return to Britain, he began adding shelves and steps to the bottom of his paintings, inviting the viewer to enter the pictorial space and become more closely acquainted with his glossy figures. It suddenly occurred to him that through a sculptural practice, he could invite his women to walk out of the canvas and into his own real, lived space. Using a commercial sculptor for shop window mannequins and wax works, Jones created Hatstand – the first of his triumvirate of women. He had originally intended to clad his figures in ordinary clothes, extending the legacy of Duchamp’s ‘readymades’, but later turned to the fantasy costumes of the circus and adult theatre. The British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes – a close friend – made the clothing according to Jones’ designs, whilst the leatherwork was commissioned from John Sutcli.e at Atomage, who made the costume for Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film The Girl on Motorcycle. By looking beyond, the realm of fine art, Jones sought to free the work from the value-laden rhetoric of traditional sculpture, imposing a deliberately domestic function upon his semi-clad figures and thrusting them into the real world.
A celebrated businessman, international playboy and contemporary art connoisseur, Gunter Sachs played a pivotal role in the 1960s European cultural scene. He counted Coco Chanel, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali among his close friends, and famously won the heart of his second wife Brigitte Bardot by flying over her St Tropez villa in a helicopter and dropping hundreds of roses into her garden. Known for his style, energy, charisma and creative flair, he was an artist in his own right – a noted filmmaker and photographer, who shot the first nude cover for Vogue in 1972 and worked with Claudia Schiffer in the early 1990s. His collection was born in Paris during his mid-20s, where he formed strong relationships with artists and gallerists and acquired major paintings by Jean Fautrier, Max Ernst and Victor Brauner. Surrealist artworks filled his home, as did important pre- and post-War furniture by Ruhlmann and Giacometti. Through his friendship with César, he met Arman, Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein, and became immersed in the burgeoning Nouveau Réaliste scene. In 1967, his collection was shown in the inaugural exhibition of the new Museum of Modern Art in Munich, with a catalogue introduction by Pierre Restany. Sachs was subsequently appointed president of the MAM association, and over four years transformed the museum into a leading platform for contemporary art. His meeting with Warhol in the mid-1960s fuelled his fascination with Pop Art, and he converted his penthouse suite at the Palace Hotel in St Moritz into a showcase for his growing collection of works by European and American exponents. Table, Chair and Hatstand were installed there, along with works by Warhol, Lalanne, Lichtenstein, Wesselmann, Arman and César. Sachs invited Jones and his wife to visit the apartment soon after he acquired the sculptures.
The 1960s was a period of radical change on both sides of the Atlantic, marked by a dramatic evolution in attitudes towards sexuality and gender. In Britain, the decade began with the publication of D. H. Lawrence's erotic, highly-charged and previously outlawed novel Lady Chatterley's Lover following the well-documented trial of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. In America, the new availability of birth control fundamentally changed attitudes towards women's sexuality and by the end of the decade John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their famous Bed-Ins for Peace. What would have been scandalous only a few years before suddenly became mainstream and permissible, providing a new context for Jones' wry appropriations of the female form. Schooled at the Royal College of Art, where Richard Hamilton was teaching at the time, he was one of a new generation of British artists – including his contemporary David Hockney – who began to challenge conventions and embrace their sexuality. Hamilton's Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? (1956) had already brought the buff imagery of American men's physique magazines and semi-clad sirens into the domestic realm, and this startling step arguably provided the context for Jones' Table, Chair and Hatstand. Underpinned by his fascination with Jungian and Freudian philosophies of self-discovery through creativity, the convergence of the quotidian and the sexualised would come to inform his oeuvre for the next two decades.
Like Hockney, Jones had spent time traveling around the United States in the mid-1960s, living in New York during the height of American Pop. It was here that he was first exposed to the vivid, often racy imagery in advertising and magazines; a far cry from the frequently staid ads and illustrations in Britain. Inspired by the work of his American contemporaries – in particular Lichtenstein's Girls and Wesselmann's Great American Nudes – Jones turned to similar sources for his paintings, adopting a bright, brazen, frontal manner akin to his colleagues. Looking to popular imagery, Jones sought to destabilise the banal, kitsch elements of consumer culture and exhume the tabooed depictions of the body, focusing his attentions on the representation of women. In the late 1960s, upon his return to Britain, he began adding shelves and steps to the bottom of his paintings, inviting the viewer to enter the pictorial space and become more closely acquainted with his glossy figures. It suddenly occurred to him that through a sculptural practice, he could invite his women to walk out of the canvas and into his own real, lived space. Using a commercial sculptor for shop window mannequins and wax works, Jones created Hatstand – the first of his triumvirate of women. He had originally intended to clad his figures in ordinary clothes, extending the legacy of Duchamp’s ‘readymades’, but later turned to the fantasy costumes of the circus and adult theatre. The British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes – a close friend – made the clothing according to Jones’ designs, whilst the leatherwork was commissioned from John Sutcli.e at Atomage, who made the costume for Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film The Girl on Motorcycle. By looking beyond, the realm of fine art, Jones sought to free the work from the value-laden rhetoric of traditional sculpture, imposing a deliberately domestic function upon his semi-clad figures and thrusting them into the real world.
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