Allen Jones at Seventy

The works in Allen Jones at Seventy at Alan Cristea Gallery have been made over the last two years in England, China and Santa Fe, New Mexico. They revisit Jones' familiar vocabulary of dancers and the catwalk and introduce the theme of the magician and his assistant. The Magic paintings, a series of recent oil paintings, are a variation on the theme of artist (or pianist) and his muse that has greatly preoccupied Jones for over a decade and illustrate the influence of Marc Chagall.

 Jones is fascinated by performance and movement of the figure and aims to achieve an idealised beauty in his presentation of it. By setting his figures within the context of the stage he is able to distance them from everyday life allowing fantasy to become a believable reality.