Doctor Robert

During one summer vacation while I was a student at Cambridge, I spent a few idyllic months with the artists Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle and Eva Aeppli in Tinguely's converted auberge-studio in the Seine-et-Oise. Later, after I left Cambridge and was looking for a job that would allow me the time to write, Niki introduced me to Robert Fraser, who had just opened his gallery, and I became his assistant for several of the more tumultuous years of the Swinging Sixties, before leaving to work with John Dunbar at the Indica Gallery. Robert acquired quite a reputation during those years, and now an exhibition based on Harriet Vyner's book about him is opening in London....

Interesting also is this review of Vyner's book
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Robert Fraser: Groovy Curator at London's Barbican

If you have any interest in the 60s London art scene, you might want to get down to Robert Fraser: Groovy Curator on 27th January 2009 at London's Barbican.

The event is a mix of talk and rare art films, the former being a Q&A with Harriet Vyner, the biographer of famed London art dealer Robert Fraser, the man responsible for introducing the London art world to Peter Blake, Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol among others. Vyner's book - Groovy Bob - tells Fraser’s story through the voices of those who new him best, which includes the likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper and Vyner herself.

Aside from the Q&A, four rarely-seen associated films are also showing - see over the page for full details of those. Tickets are available now, priced at £7.50.

Looking for Mushrooms (15*)
A hypnotic trip of lush beauty and saturated colour while mushroom hunting in Mexico.
UK 1967 Dir. Bruce Connor 3 min.

Invocation of My Demon Brother (15*)
Anger’s homage to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, with fast-moving editing, droning soundtrack and saturated with colour.
UK 1969 Dir. Kenneth Anger 11 min.

Pop Goes The Easel (15*)
A k aleidoscopic impression of the Pop Art universe and a portrait of artists Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty and Peter Phillips. Made for BBC TV’s Monitor series.
UK 1962 Dir. Ken Russell 44 min.

Fathers of Pop (15*)
This rarely-screened documentary film, made with the support of the Arts Council, looks at the Independent Group (1952-1955), who saw themselves as a breakaway faction of the ICA, and their influence on the British Pop Art generation.

The Group were among the first British artists to explore both the horrors and promises of technology, space-travel and the consequent new sci-fi genre, and "the technicolour dreams [of] American media".

An interview-led film that clarifies connections with a very personal touch, including dialogues with Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, Lawrence Alloway, Nigel Henderson, record producer Frankie Cordell and the late John McHale.
UK 1979 Dir. Julian Cooper 47 min.