Allen Jones, The General and His Girl, 1961

1961

Medium

acrylic on canvas integral wooden frame

Dimensions

121.9 × 91.4 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-153638

The profile head and shoulders of a girl rises from the bottom edge of the canvas. The small prominent rectangle contains her ‘ear ring’, the constellation of ‘the plough’. Her crooked arm is raised towards a group of three patterned rectangles as if she is playing cards. A series of bubbles float from her head towards a large enclosed circular area containing cloud like marks. The sequence forms a disguised comic strip thought balloon. This balloon can be read as the head of a Paul Klee like figure ‘The General’ whose narrow neck and uniform tunic is formed by the large spreading khaki area across the bottom third of the canvas. ‘His girl’ is playing with his medals. Elements in this picture are repeated in two other works from 1961 The artist thinks and City. The artist was involved with ‘stream of consciousness’ as a method of developing the images in the paintings of this period’ (Allen Jones, private correspondence with the artist, 2003).