Jo brocklehurst biography

Jo herself worked as a magazine and costume book illustrator when she left art school, but she kept going back to Suter's classes into the 1970s.
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Jo Brocklehurst, who has died aged 70, was able to spend her life as a professional artist is an indication of both her profound talent and her unwillingness.

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Jo Brocklehurst in Rome, 1966. Photo courtesy of Fershid Bharucha

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

A tiny woman in a blonde Dusty Springfield wig sits with a large drawing pad on her lap, sketching furiously. On her head are three pairs of glasses: a pair of spectacles resting on her nose, a pair of sunglasses over the top, and another pair of spectacles above, presumably a spare.

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Surrounding her on sofas and chairs in the small studio on a quiet North London street are several punks in full regalia sipping tea out of fine china. All except one, who is sitting motionless with her eyes fixed on a spot on the ceiling. She’s bemused, but delighted that the artist who lives down the street from the squat wants to draw her and her friends, luring them in with the promise of bottomless Earl Grey. She allows herself a slight smile.

This was a common scene in the West Hampstead home of Jo Brocklehurst in the early 1980s. The figurative artist, who died in 2006, is perhaps best known for her drawings of the punks who lived—along with

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Jo Brocklehurst : Review

May 5, 2017

By all accounts, Jo Brocklehurst was an interesting figure. Trained at St Martins, the artist and illustrator loved to dress up wearing unusual outfits, wigs, and several pairs of glasses and sunglasses at once.

Jo Brocklehurst : Nobodies and Somebodies review – The House of Illustration

Jo Brocklehurst also had a proficiency at drawing swiftly, with a particular talent for sketching in near darkness – whilst wearing her sunglasses in a dark nightclub, for example. Brocklehurst would drag a wheelie trolley full of materials with her to fetish, LGB and alternative clubs and sit in a corner, capturing the characters who populated the clubs and their carefully put together costumes. The results are a series of vibrant, Egon Schiele-like portraits, in which her early training as a fashion illustrator is apparent in their stylised faces and graceful, muscular bodies.

These are the kind of images that can lead to disappointment – according to Brocklehurst these clubs are populated exclusively with lithe, full-lipped,

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Imagine being daring enough to approach punks in a dimly lit club in 1980s London, and ask if you could draw their portraits. Jo Brocklehurst (1935-2006) dared, allowing us into a world where the boundaries of art, fashion, rebellion, and the transformative power of self-expression intersect. Her remarkable in situ drawings serve as a captivating piece of anthropological history.

Brocklehurst had a talent for capturing the unique style and individualism of the punks, fetishists, actors, dancers, and club-goers she’d find in the nightclubs of London and Berlin. She was fascinated by their fearless fashion sense and distinct appearance, which she depicted in her reportage.

Brocklehurst had an unconventional 40-year artistic journey. She abandoned a promising career as a fashion illustrator to dedicate herself to capturing the spirit of those who cherished their freedom above commercial success. Brocklehurst was a beautiful yet immensely shy person. She was as mysterious as the characters she brought to life on paper, often masking her appearance in a disguise of blond