Pauline Boty was a strong creative force, but where did she go?

Here’s why you’ve never heard of the mother of British Pop Art.

Pauline Boty in the Ken Russell film Pop Goes the Easel.

In the opening statement of her essay , Kalliopi Minioudaki states “The accepted story of Pop Art, as in many modernist tales, is one of male subjects and female objects.” This statement could not be more true, except for when studying the work of artist Pauline Boty.

During the early years, . However, not long after Pop Art was discovered, Boty disappeared along with all her work. What happened to this iconic figure of feminism, and why is her work forgotten?

She was once a young girl with ideas too big for her suburban upbringing.

Born in 1938, Boty grew up under the influence of her mother, an aspiring artist who's dream of showing her work in galleries was put down by her husband. In spite of this, Boty’s mother fought for Boty to be able to study the talent she had passed down to her daughter, sending her to the Royal College of Art. In this time Boty discovered the male-dominated world of art.