Born 1937 in Portsmouth, UK, Derek Boshier was a seminal British artist and was a leading figure of the British Pop scene in the 1960s.
Boshier rose to prominence early in his career. In 1961, while he was still a student at the Royal College of Art in London, the Whitechapel Art Gallery presented the landmark exhibition "Young Contemporaries," featuring his works alongside those of his classmates David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, and Peter Phillips.
Just one year later, Boshier was featured along with Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, and Peter Phillips, in Ken Russell’s Pop Goes the Easel — a 1962 BBC documentary about Britain's Pop art movement. Russell differentiated the movement by its unapologetic delight in mass culture, and Boshier, in particular, by the intellectual tenor of his paintings.
Boshier’s work of the period dealt with the space race, pop music, and the Americanization of Britain. Just about every part of British life, the artist observed, from its fashions to its entertainment to its Kellogg’s-based breakfasts, was increasingly shaped by America’s far-reaching advertising and cultural dominance.
In his iconic painting England’s Glory (1961), the artist depicts an American Flag spreading like an oil spill over a matchbox that bears the painting’s eponymous phrase. Elsewhere in the work, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s famous quote from the Battle of Trafalgar, "England expects that every man will do his duty," competes with Kellogg’s Yogi Bear for space, symbolizing the unrelenting ubiquity and spread of American consumerism. To this day, the visual artifacts of mass culture remain potent ingredients in the artist’s work where corporate logos commingle with history, art, and poetry — Joan Miró and William Blake.
Boshier has been both prolific and wide-ranging in his artistic production, working in varied media as painting, drawing, prints, film, sculpture, and installation, among others. The Clash’s 2nd Songbook — as well as David Bowie’s Lodger album cover — exposed mass audiences to his work. His collaboration with Bowie sparked a life-long friendship, many subsequent collaborations, and a handful of Bowie paintings.
In addition to his art practice, Boshier had a long and distinguished record as an educator, teaching at the Central School of Art and Design, London from 1963–1979, the Royal College of Art, London from 1973–1979, the University of Houston from 1980–1992, and the California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles from 1997 to the present.
Boshier was the subject of over 91 solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as Flowers Gallery (1974 and 1976, London); Texas Gallery (1987, 1989, and 1991, Houston); Galerie du Centre (2003, 2005, 2007, and 2013, Paris); Flowers Gallery (2008, 2012, and 2013, New York); the National Portrait Gallery (2013, London) and Gazelli Art House (2017 and 2019, London). His work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions including "Art and The Sixties" (2004, Tate, London); "Pop Art: UK" (2004, Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy); "British Pop" (2006, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain), and others.
Boshier's work features in numerous public collections internationally, including the Tate, London; the British Museum, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, Windsor Castle; the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and others.
Find Derek Boshier art for sale on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Alpha 137 Gallery)
$1,000
Untitled abstraction, woodcut, Signed/N, Art Against AIDS, British Pop pioneer
By Derek Boshier
Located in New York, NY
Derek Boshier Untitled, from the Art Against AIDS Portfolio, 1988 Woodcut on paper with deckled edges Hand signed, numbered 38/50 and dated on lower front with printer's and publishe...
Woodcut, Pencil
$800
Derek Boshier - Culture Carriers Stamp Out Art SCARCE Signed/N British Pop stamp
By Derek Boshier
Located in New York, NY
DEREK BOSHIER "Culture Carriers Stamp Out Art", (Hand Signed), from the Collection of Art Critic Anthony Haden-Guest, 1971 Lithograph mounted on franked envelope of wove paper (Hand ...
Lithograph
$800Sale Price|20% Off
Derek Boshier ONE 1967 Signed Limited Edition Silkscreen
By Derek Boshier
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
Derek Boshier ONE - 1967 Print - Silkscreen 22½'' x 31'' in. Edition: Signed in pencil, titled, dated and marked 36/70 Small creases and cracked ink in silkscreen. Otherwise very g...
Screen
Untitled
By Kiki Smith
Located in New York, NY
Kiki Smith 'Untitled,' 1995 Woodcut with color additions by hand 31 x 21 inches Edition 43 of 47 Signed In 1995 five well-known American artists - Donald Baechler, Julian Lethbridge...
Woodcut
$3,000
H 12 in W 12 in
Rare original Keith Haring Vinyl Record Art (Keith Haring Crack Is Wack)
By Keith Haring
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Rare Keith Haring “Life is Fresh! Crack Is Wack!” 1987 sealed/unopened in its original shrink wrapping: A highly sought-after 1980s record album featurin...
Offset, Lithograph
$3,000
H 17.07 in W 17 in
Variant I /// Josef Albers Abstract Geometric Screenprint Minimalism Bauhaus Art
By Josef Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Josef Albers (German-American, 1888-1976) Title: "Variant I" Portfolio: Ten Variants *Unsigned edition Year: 1967 Medium: Original Screenprint on Rives BFK paper Limited edit...
Screen
$14,000
H 24.5 in W 23.13 in
E /// Anni Albers Female Women Artist Abstract Geometric Screenprint Bauhaus Art
By Anni Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Anni Albers (German-American, 1899-1994) Title: "E" Portfolio: (First) Triadic Series *Signed and dated by Albers in pencil lower right Year: 1969 Medium: Original Screenprin...
Screen
$28,000
H 29.53 in W 22.25 in
Wave Crest (1999). Screenprint. Limited Edition of 60 by Yayoi Kusama (ABE 251)
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Yayoi Kusama Wave Crest (1999). Edition 15/60 Screenprint [3 screens, 2 colors, 3 runs] 59.7 x 47.8 cm (image) 76x 56.5cm (sheet) Edition of 60 + 6 Artist Proofs + 5 Printer Proof...
Lithograph
$2,234
H 29.93 in W 22.84 in
Untitled from "Kinderstern" - Max Bill, Hard Edge, Color Field, Bright Colors
By Max Bill
Located in Köln, DE
Screenprint by Max Bill. From the portfolio "Kinderstern". No Title, 1989 76 x 58 cm Copy 61/100 Edition of 100 (approx.)
Screen
$22,000
H 32.25 in W 28.19 in
Orange Meander /// Anni Albers Bauhaus Abstract Geometric Female Artist Screen
By Anni Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Anni Albers (German-American, 1899-1994) Title: "Orange Meander" Portfolio: Meander *Signed and dated by Albers in pencil lower right Year: 1970 Medium: Original Screenprint ...
Screen
Keith Haring: Into 1984/Tony Shafrazi Gallery
By Keith Haring
Located in New York, NY
Color offset lithograph. Signed and dated in felt-tip pen and pink ink, lower right. Published by Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York. Presented in black wood frame (36.5" x 24.75") M...
Color, Lithograph, Offset
$24,000
H 23.88 in W 22.13 in
C /// Anni Albers Female Women Artist Abstract Geometric Screenprint Minimalist
By Anni Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Anni Albers (German-American, 1899-1994) Title: "C" Portfolio: (First) Triadic Series *Signed and dated by Albers in pencil lower right Year: 1969 Medium: Original Screenprin...
Screen
$62,059
H 16.93 in W 16.93 in
"Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers" - Abstract, Set, Square
By Josef Albers
Located in Köln, DE
Set of 10 colour screenprints by Josef Albers. Edition of 250 copies on Mohawk Superfine Bristol. Sheet dimensions each: 43 x 43 cm Illustrations each: 28 x 28 cm All works labell...
Screen
$14,000
H 24.5 in W 23.19 in
F /// Anni Albers Female Women Artist Abstract Geometric Screenprint Minimalist
By Anni Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Anni Albers (German-American, 1899-1994) Title: "F" Portfolio: (First) Triadic Series *Signed and dated by Albers in pencil lower right Year: 1969 Medium: Original Screenprin...
Screen
Rio de Janeiro
By Robert Rauschenberg
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Rio de Janeiro is a colorful, bold, graphic, and visually compelling offset-lithograph by blue chip, pop artist Robert Rauschenberg. In 1991, he was involved with th...
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Lithograph, Offset
$3,750
H 31 in W 46 in D 2 in
Large Bus by Allen Jones classic British 1960s pop art in bright primary colors
By Allen Jones
Located in New York, NY
This large Allen Jones lithograph is printed exuberantly in primary colors. A swath of bright red brushstrokes represents the side of a bus. In the upper left, small windows reveal the passengers: a woman’s face is cut off above her vampy red lips, and a blue-haired man’s face is hidden. Royal blue fills the upper right corner of the composition, giving the impression of looking up at a passing bus against the cloudless sky. One can imagine Jones was thinking of the iconic red double decker bus the AEC Routemaster, first introduced in London in 1954. In the 1960s buses were a living symbol of familiar and new technology coexisting: as David Bucken put it, “In and around London a midpoint change on a journey might involve alighting from an RT bus, of which production had started just prior to World War II, and getting on one of the sexy new Routemasters.” In the artist’s words: “The whole problem as a figurative artist was that it was going against the main march of modernism, which was towards abstraction. But here was a way of making the subject you were painting the same as the object you were painting on. By making the canvas a rhomboid, and putting little wheels on it, you have a schematic version of a vehicle, in this case a London bus.” Jones plays with the space between abstraction and figuration: windowed passengers, elaborated with just a few lines and placed adjacent to a weighty red ground of brushstrokes, easily convey the form of a bus, yet the print also conveys Jones’ visceral, painterly delight in color play. Four color lithograph on wove paper Paper 28.5 x 42.5 / 72.4 X 108 cm Wood frame 31 x 46 x 2 in. / 78.75 x 117 x 5 cm with 1 in. moulding Signed by the artist lower right in pencil, labeled Trial Proof lower left in pencil. Edition 20. Printed at Tamarind Los Angeles with Clifford Smith...
Lithograph
$5,000
H 17 in W 16.94 in
Arrived /// Josef Albers Abstract Geometrical Screenprint 1960's Color Theory
By Josef Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Josef Albers (German-American, 1888-1976) Title: "Arrived" Portfolio: Soft Edge - Hard Edge *Unsigned edition Year: 1965 Medium: Original Screenprint on Mohawk Superfine Bris...
Screen
$5,000
H 16.94 in W 16.94 in
Arctic Bloom /// Josef Albers Blue Orange Screenprint Homage to the Square Print
By Josef Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Josef Albers (German-American, 1888-1976) Title: "Arctic Bloom" Portfolio: Soft Edge - Hard Edge *Unsigned edition Year: 1965 Medium: Original Screenprint on Mohawk Superfine...
Screen
Six Lithographs
By Derek Boshier
Located in Roma, IT
Six Lithographs is an original artwork realized by Derek Boshier in 1969. All the sheets are hand signed and dated in pencil on the lower right margin, and numbered on the lower lef...
Lithograph