Renaud Faroux, "Antony Donaldson Up to Now", Lewes, 2020, page 47
The leading figure of pop art in England, Antony Donaldson, attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1958 to 1962. While still in school, he began exhibiting his works with The London Group and Young Contemporaries. His friendship with Allen Jones and Patrick Caulfield, in particular, put him firmly within the emerging pop art movement in London during the early 1960s.
"Modern Girl" is reminiscent of Donaldson’s early work, where one of his most common subjects was the pin-up girl. As Renaud Faroux explains: “What Antony Donaldson paints embodies those days of young beauties displaying their charms in the colour supplements of "The Sunday Times", "Queen Magazine" and "Playboy.”
The female torso cropped within a shaped frame enhances the photographic quality of the work, relying on Donaldson's customary array of bright colours. However, with "Modern Girl", the artist has moved away from a simplified flat decorative style, to more focused attention on detail, suggesting a deeper level of intimacy with the subject.
