Page 69 - Studio International - June 1968

Supplement June 1968

Lithographs and original prints

Two artists discuss their was made of wood. It was beautiful and any notion of engraving on it
or improving it seemed stupid, I thought of putting it into a leather
recent worl< pouch in the bottom of the box, so that it would seem rather secret­
you would discover it. Eventually I removed the descriptive or func­
tional quality of the wood by having the last cast in aluminium. Now
that I've lived with it for a while I see it as a- legitimate sculpture.
whereas in the beginning I was not prepared to think of it in any other
way than as a giveaway, subordinated to the lithographs. I think it is
a kind of Pop Brancusi-what?
Someone pointed out the other day that the kind of imagery, parti­
cularly relating to the female figure, which I have used in the last five

The following statements derive irom recorded
conversations

1. Allen Jones

Last year I tried to make a lithograph different in style and execution
from my normal working habit of using large flat areas of colour with
little modulation. I aimed to make something small. and precious to me,
using traditional litho techniques. The first drawing gave rise to a
series based on shoes that had appeared in my paintings over the last
five or so years. This was the loose framework for my folio.
The title Shoe Box, which suggested itself to me, seemed inadequate
when applied to a small folio with the depth of a cigar box. This led
me to consider the inclusion of a giveaway with the lithographs, as a
reason for increasing the depth-dimension, thus giving a more likely
appearance for a shoe box. Although I liked the idea of a giveaway,
the Shoe Box was. after all, an analogy, therefore any object included
had to be integrated as an art work.
I visited the Anello and Davide workrooms hoping to find something
suitable from the various processes employed in the manufacture of
shoes but Mr Davide assured me that it was not a very visual activity.
In one department were huge boxes containing hunGlreds of shoe
lasts. all very ordinary except for some used for making 'theatrical
footwear', as it is called. This means fetish shoes, grotesque shoes and
shoes for men, women and clowns. The one I eventually chose was
the most extreme. being devoid of all the incidental features associated
with a shoe. A production from the last would force the wearer to
walk on tip-toe in the stance of a ballet dancer on points. I was
interested in this similarity since both the dancer and the fetishist are
involved in mis-using the natural function of the foot; subordinating
it to style and elegance in a striving towards an artificial absolute. I was
also reminded of Sixth Avenue popular literature. Artists in these pub-
lications have distilled an identical shoe-form for illustrating the foot.
This embodies the idea of 'shoe' and all it implies without getting
involved in descriptive detail or transitory styles. The original shoe last Sketch by Allen Jones for Shoe Box
335