The artist, a bi-sexual Englishman, was one of the more prominent purveyors of nude male magazines and photographs in the post-war period, some of which earned him time in prison. He published magazines such as "Man to Man" and "Golden Boys" and assorted others, but he also self-published several books with more serious allusions, such as the "Superb Youth," series which attempt to cross the line into more conventional "artist's books." Notwithstanding this pretense, the books contain a wealth of well-endowed and quite attractive young men in assorted provocative poses. This profile portrait on “scraper board” measures 15.25” x 12”, signed “JB ’59” at lower left, a few light surface cracks. More

London: Barrington (1970-71). Issues 1-4 of this short-lived publication, each limited to 250 copies. Barrington had been imprisoned for publishing pornography in the 1960s and issued these publications in a more limited way in order to avoid legal problems. Each issue contains images of male nudes printed on Barrington's lithography machine, bound in blue stapled wrappers. See Smith, Physique: The Life of John S. Barrington @184. Uncommon. More

John S. Barrington (aka John Paignton) was a pioneering pornographer and bisexual photographer of male ""physique"" images in postwar Britain. He was routinely harassed by British authorities and spent time in jail for publishing gay muscle magazines. He was also an accomplished artist and much of Barrington's artwork appeared in his numerous publications, such as the Art and Anthropometry series. This is an original painting on board, which is signed by the artist in pencil (lower right corner) and dated 1980. More