1994
Jo Brocklehurst, Untitled (portrait of Betty Blue), 1994
Jo (Josephine) Brocklehurst (1935 - 2006) studied at Central Saint Martins and began her career as a fashion illustrator. She later focused on portraiture, drawing directly from models at her studio in West Hampstead and in nightclubs and theatres in Berlin, London and New York. Her work documents the alternative subcultures of the 1970s, 80s and 90s that went on to shape mainstream fashion and performance scenes. In the 1990s, Brocklehurst began drawing the fashion designers and performers finding space for experimentation in the fetish clubs of Soho and King’s Cross.
Jo Brocklehurst, Ruber Angel (portrait of Isabelle Bricknall), 1994
Jo (Josephine) Brocklehurst (1935 - 2006) studied at Central Saint Martins and began her career as a fashion illustrator. She later focused on portraiture, drawing directly from models at her studio in West Hampstead and in nightclubs and theatres in Berlin, London and New York. Her work documents the alternative subcultures of the 1970s, 80s and 90s that went on to shape mainstream fashion and performance scenes. In the 1990s, Brocklehurst began drawing the fashion designers and performers finding space for experimentation in the fetish clubs of Soho and King’s Cross. This portrait is of Brocklehurst’s regular collaborator Isabelle Bricknall, whose collection of steel ‘body armour’ (constructed by Anthony Gregory) was designed as ‘protection’ for nights on the fetish scene.
Content warning: strong language
