Barry Fantoni is well known as a cartoonist for The Times and Private Eye. He also pens for Private Eye the notorious obituary-style poems under the name ‘E. J. Thribb, 17 ½ ’ and is the man behind the Heir of Sorrows series by ‘Sylvie Krin’ in the same magazine. However, his private life as an artist will be revealed for the first time in this exhibition.

The works Fantoni made in private reveal a personal narrative of Post-War British history through landscapes, interiors and images of friends and lovers. At the same time, his cartoons record political and social history with characteristic, unblinking humour. Both sides of this artistic life will be shown in the exhibition, which will start with the 1960s, a decade that Fantoni once famously claimed to have created. Indeed, these paintings show Fantoni to be at the centre of the highly influential ‘London School’, whose most famous exponents are David Hockney, Lucien Freud and R.B. Kitaj.

Fantoni (b. London, 1940) began his career at Camberwell College of Arts & Crafts (1954-58), from which he was expelled ‘for setting fire to a chair in the common room, being sick in the lavatory, [and] going after the birds’. He nevertheless returned to Camberwell and continued to work as an artist for a further twenty-five years, making a major contribution to the development of Pop Art and teaching, amongst others, Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren and the group’s graphic designer, Jamie Reid at Croydon College of Art, where fellow teachers included Bridget Riley and Howard Hodgkin.

It is hard to find any area in the transforming decade of the 1960s that Fantoni didn’t make his own. His career at Private Eye began in 1963 and he remains a member of the editorial staff to this day.  He was the diary page cartoonist for The Times from 1983-1990, a regular illustrator for The Radio Times and The Listener, contributory art critic for The Times and a music reviewer for Punch. He was presenter on the BBC’s 1960s music and fashion programme, A Whole Scene Going, in which Twiggy made her television debut and in which Fantoni was voted ‘TV Personality of the Year’, and cartoonist for the BBC television’s That Was The Week That Was. Latterly, he has become highly regarded as a playwright (Piano Tuner, 2005, was described by the Daily Telegraph as “a master-class”) and a novelist, penning a number of best-selling detective stories. Fantoni’s musical career saw him making numerous recordings, with Ray Davis from The Kinks often providing the backing music. 

Financial Times 24 April 2009

Radio 4 Midweek 22 April 2009

Eye Blog 22 May 2009