Shadows (Paperback)

This book features exclusive photography by the renowned artist Allen Jones RA. These images enable the shadows of his celebrated sculptures to become works of art in their own right, revealing a viewpoint previously unseen or unnoticed. Intermingled with views of the Jones’s own home and household objects, Shadows is an intimate, beautiful and playful 60-page publication featuring previously unseen work by the artist.

“Light can transform a solid object into an insubstantial shadow, not a copy but a unique slant on the real thing,” says Jones. “Domestic shadows are anchored to their place but out of doors they can come alive seemingly of their own volition. Dependent on the sun and moon for their existence these shadow drawings will exactly repeat themselves only once a year – weather permitting.”

Jones was elected a Royal Academician in 1986. He is one of Britain’s most distinguished artists from the pioneering Pop Movement, whose paintings and sculptures are held in many important international collections, including: Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, the Museum of 20th-Century Art in Vienna, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Shadows is one of a collection of four artist’s books by Allen Jones that Black Dog Press is releasing in September 2022.

A pioneer of the Pop Movement, Jones’s many accolades include representing the UK at the Paris Biennale in 1963, where he received the Prix des Jeunes Artistes, and being elected a Royal Academician in 1986.

There have been several prominent solo exhibitions of his work over the past 55 years, including: the 1978–79 painting and sculpture retrospective of his work at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and the Serpentine Gallery, London; the 1995 retrospective of his complete graphic works at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, which for three years toured the world under the auspices of the British Council; and the 2007–8 shows where Jones’s work was exhibited simultaneously at Tate Britain and The Royal Academy of Arts.

To mark the artist’s 75th birthday in 2012, a large, restrospective exhibition entitled Off the Wall, featuring sculptures, paintings, prints and drawings, toured through Europe, going on to tour venues in South America in 2015. In addition, a 2014–15 Royal Academy of Arts retrospective presented his work on thematic lines.

Alongside his paintings and sculptures, which are held by many of the world’s most revered art institutions, Jones has worked on large-scale commissions for a host of prestigious organisations and architects. These include mural projects in Basle, Zurich and London, and monumental sculptures in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and China for the likes of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Yuzi Paradise Sculpture Park and Allen & Overy.