A deluxe 122 page book collecting 56 unique paintings by Andy Partridge that offer visual interpretations of XTC songs.

 

Every painting comes with Andy’s personal observations and comments.

 

Printed on high quality 200gsm paper and issued as a limited edition of 2000 hardcover books with a linen finish, Popartery is exclusively available from the Burning Shed hosted APEHouse store.

 

Each copy includes a numbered bookplate, signed by Andy Partridge. The book also includes an intro by AP and an outro by fellow artist and collaborator, Andrew Swainson.

 

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Popartery

 

Just as music gets under your skin, art can leave a lasting impression. As for arteries, there’s that connection to the heart, the indelible imprint that a great tune, a keenly observed lyric, a striking image all share. The front cover image of Popartery sums it up appropriately. It’s one of a series of 56 watercolours (originally meant to have been 50 – it’s a long story) that Andy Partridge painted as the individual centerpieces of dustjackets for an extremely limited run of hardcover books some years back. 

 

With the exception of a couple posted on the internet, the original paintings were only seen by the recipients. Fortunately, Andy had each of them scanned and preserved by his longtime art associate Andrew Swainson. Andrew had redrawn three of the paintings for a limited series of prints but the idea of bringing all of them together became a frequent point of discussion until the idea of a book featuring the complete set emerged. Each of the 56 paintings is also accompanied by a note from Andy P discussing, variously, the origins of the songs, the visual imagery used and other pointers of interest.

 

It will come as no surprise to those familiar with his art direction – both of XTC and his solo material - that Andy Partridge thinks, primarily, in visual terms and is certainly as interested in and influenced by art as music. The notion of Pop Art is, in its UK incarnation, indelibly linked with Peter Blake’s sleeve for Sgt. Pepper. For Andy, painter and illustrator Alan Aldridge is as strong an influence but the links between Pop Art and pop music, the points at which popular culture and Culture/Pop Art and Art merge are omnipresent in his imagery. As a fan of comics of the era, Andy is also familiar with the period in 1965 when Stan Lee, (never a man to miss an opportunity), briefly added a “Marvel Pop Art Productions” label to the front of the monthly comics. That sense of playfulness with imagery and colour, the range of influences from Art to comic books runs throughout Popartery and with the accompanying notes for each song, provides a unique insight into one of English Pop’s master songwriters.

 

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Each book will come packaged in custom sized protective cardboard.