Allen Jones RA (b. 1937, Southampton) is one of the principal figures associated with British Pop Art. Across painting, printmaking, sculpture and design, he has explored the relationship between the human figure, popular culture, performance and desire, often using bold colour, sharply defined silhouettes and imagery drawn from fashion, advertising and the stage.

Jones studied at Hornsey College of Art from 1955 to 1959 before entering the Royal College of Art in 1959, where his contemporaries included David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips. He left the RCA after a year but quickly established himself within the new generation of British artists whose work was challenging the conventions of post-war painting.

During the early 1960s Jones developed a highly graphic approach to the figure, combining painting with ideas drawn from commercial imagery, film and fashion. His work was included in major exhibitions of contemporary British art, and he became increasingly associated with Pop through his use of bright colour and the visual language of mass culture.

A period spent in New York in the mid-1960s intensified his interest in advertising, magazines and the theatrical presentation of the body. These concerns culminated at the end of the decade in his best-known group of sculptures, in which highly stylised female figures were transformed into furniture forms. The works provoked considerable controversy and became central to debates around sexuality, objectification and Pop Art.

Jones continued to move between painting, sculpture and printmaking, frequently returning to the figure as a source of movement, theatricality and visual tension. Dancers, performers and couples became recurring subjects, often presented within compressed or ambiguous spaces. He also worked extensively in stage and television design, including projects for Kenneth Tynan, Ballet Rambert and the Royal Ballet.

His international reputation developed rapidly, and major retrospectives were held at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the ICA, London, and later at the Barbican, with exhibitions travelling widely in Europe and beyond. Jones was elected a Royal Academician in 1986 and served as a Trustee of the British Museum from 1990 to 1999.

Jones’s work is held in major public collections in Britain and internationally, including Tate and the British Museum.