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Antony Little
Celebrating the Draughtsmanship & Design of the 1960s -
Tristan Hoare and Orson Fry are delighted to present a talk and exhibition by British illustrator and designer Antony Little, for one night only in Fitzroy Square on Wednesday 18th October.
Renowned for his designs for the iconic sixties boutiques Biba and Hung on You, Antony also co-founded the luxury wallpaper and fabric company Osborne & Little. This exhibition, curated by Orson Fry, opens on 18th October 2023 and will be a unique opportunity to hear about Antony’s creative life in his own words.
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Antony & Aubrey (1967)
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"I drew this as an illustration of my admiration for Aubrey’s draughtsmanship. I’ve shown him as a tall, thin man. The way I’ve done his hair… which was his most recognisable feature. The odd thing about Beardsley, he hated Oscar Wilde and Oscar Wilde hated him, which is odd because their work crossed over in the Yellow Book and other publications. I’m wearing a black plastic coat which I did wear at the time, and bell-bottoms and co-respondent shoes. As you can see, Aubrey has his hand on my shoulder as some kind of recognition, and I’m looking up to him. I drew that as a sign of my respect but it’s not anything I repeated, if you see what I mean. Although he was scrawny, and probably, by all accounts, a dreadful man, I’ve made him something I could look up to."
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In 1967 Antony was approached to illustrate an edition of short stories by the French surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire. He combined his draughtsmanship and rich imagination to deliver sixteen exquisite black and white illustrations in the manner of Aubrey Beardsley. Expressing the macabre, outrageous, witty, and erotic nature of the stories, they became wonderful works of art in their own right.
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The Dancer (1967)
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"This figure is inspired by Salome, daughter of Herod II. As one can see it’s set to look like something out of the Jordan Valley. The house is a simplified dome which helps place it. The crevice in the ground, there’s meant to be water at the bottom of it. It’s a curious setting and the figure, inspired by Salome, is also, I realise, inspired by my wife Jennifer’s friend April Ashley [model and activist who underwent one of the first ever sex reassignment surgeries] which was a coincidence. She doesn’t have April’s big hands… April was very ahead of her times."
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Bring Me The Head Of The Baptist (1968)
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"This is again Salome. She is obviously at the Royal Palace, where there is an entire mixture of acolytes, servants. You can see an Egyptian-headed person on the right, next to what looks possibly like a Persian person, and on the left there appears to be two Greek young men of whatever relationship. Sitting on the floor there appears to be two eunuchs, which were favoured servants to royalty, and one is looking up in slight disbelief at Salome’s demand, and the other one seems to be glancing at her with a sense of deep puzzlement. The figures are enclosed with a mixture of designs, forms of art-nouveau symbols, which enliven the scene. But almost central is what seems to be a mirror with a face of utter horror staring at the onlooker."
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The Poets’ Napkin (1967)
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"In Apollinaire's story, 'The Poets' Napkin' is shared between four poets who then begin to die mysterious deaths... The expression on her face is what it’s all about. I’m pretty sure I would have started the drawing with the two eyes, which say “What is going on? What am I doing? Why?” It’s all rather mysterious. It’s one of my best drawings, just for the economy of line, because it still manages to illustrate the idea of The Poets' Napkin. You can almost count the single lines. In this case, it’s hardly Beardsley-esque, it’s so simple."
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Otmika (1967)
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"In Apollinaire’s story, it takes a long time for him to get around to running off with her. This is what often happened in Bosnia [where the story is set], it’s what it’s about. Obviously, he’s semi-excited, looking forward to the next stage. She appears to be either waving enthusiastically or waving in distress. I think she was taken from a church. The blackness is possibly the remains of her cloak. The man is looking with an expression of half-pity and half-triumph."
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The Matron's Victim (1967)
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"People might wonder what this drawing means... The figure on the left, who has the curious drawing feature of a line landing on her head, I would call the Matron. That rather unpleasant creature is looking after the young girl in bed, who is possibly ill or dying. The young girl is obviously beautiful and weeping, and her exposed breasts are beautiful, and beside her on the table is a variety of containers and a spoon, and the spoon was used to spoon medicine into this poor girl’s mouth. I think that it illustrates the sadness of this pretty girl being dominated, kept alive, or dead, by this bossy-looking figure. The matron’s expression and part of the scenery is an expression of authority over those that are ill. I would say the most descriptive element is the spoon. It’s the murder weapon really. In the history of Western Civilisation, the amount of people who were poisoned is amazing, like in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, half of the people in that were suspected of being poisoned."
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Que Vlo-Ve? (1967)
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"There are two points to this drawing. The drawing is a contrast between this effeminate musician and what’s at the bottom, the least effeminate thing you’ve ever seen, the wild boar, which has an expression of disappointed wildness because he’s tethered to his man. And both of them look miserable. Otherwise, the background is a rather complicated patchwork of details and flowers which form an amusement for the drawing. But there is a hidden third figure in the top left, looking with disdain at these two creatures..."
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Antony Little: Viewing Room
Past viewing_room
