Lot 542 N

‚A dynamic relationship between artist and spectator is critical to Jones´s work. The persistence of eroticism is due not only to its celebratory aspect and to its analogy to the creative act: on a more immediate level it is a means of arousing an active viewer response regardless of the extent of the viewer´s knowledge of contemporary art. Social comment is not one of the artist´s intentions, but Jones acknowledges that the paintings are bound by their nature to draw on many preoccupations of our time which go beyond the purely visual. There is much to ponder in Jones´s work about sexual identity, roleplaying, the function of clothing, fetishism and the underlying violence of human relationships most vividly realized in sadomasochism. The artist is neither promoting nor condemning any particular aspect of sexuality; rather he is reflecting back society´s own concerns in a way that will encourage continued deliberation and discussion of questions of fundamental social importance.' (Marco Livingstone, Allen Jones, Dancing with the Heads and Legs, in: Allen Jones, Retrospective of Paintings, 1957-1978, Exhibition, exib.cat. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool et.al, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1979, not paginated)