Allen Jones

Beginning 29 October, the Alan Cristea Gallery will be staging a one-man exhibition of the work of the celebrated British artist Allen Jones. The exhibition will bring together paintings, works on paper, drawings and editioned prints, whose common motif is a suited pianist.

Perhaps best known for his significant contribution to British Pop Art in the 1960's, Allen Jones has been exciting us with his witty eroticism for the past forty years. Rooted in the pleasure principle, his work is synonymous with girls, spirited pianists and sharp-suited dancers, whom he depicts with stocking-legged woman or a man seated at a piano, his figures always manage to exude a guilt-free eroticism.

Ever since his student days at the Royal College of Art, London, printmaking has been central to Allen Jones' creativity and indeed he concedes that his prints, predominantly lithographs and screenprints, often feed into his work as a painter and sculptor. This long-established creative exchange between his prints, paintings and works on paper will be evident here as work from the 1980's sits alongside pieces completed a matter of months ago. Standing Room Only is one of a series of five screenprints, collectively entitled Sheet Music, which will be exhibited together for the first time.