Susan Robins; Brian Robins
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Susan Robins; Brian Robins
by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1960
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x31649
Sittersback to top
- Brian Robins (1928-1988), Artist and playwright; Coffee house proprietor. Sitter in 14 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 3 portraits.
- Susan Robins, Coffee house proprietor. Sitter in 4 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 131 Read entry
Welsh-born Robins left school aged fourteen and worked at various manual jobs. When he met Kar and Musgrave in the early 1950s, he was working as the last lamplighter in London. Robins was self-taught as a sculptor and his work was exhibited at Gallery One in 1954. A year later he photographed Kar with his carved wooden portrait of her (a version of this image was used on the cover of Kar's Whitechapel exhibition catalogue). Robins exhibited alongside the painter Ralph Rumney at the New Vision Centre (1956) and became noted for his kinetic sculptures, shown in a solo exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery (1966). This photograph shows Robins and his wife Susan at The Farm, their short-lived basement coffee shop at 14 Monmouth Street in Covent Garden, which became a meeting-place for young artists and poets after the couple opened it on 23 June 1959. As well as selling coffee, its aim, according to Robins, 'was to show works which the commercial galleries would not show ... I felt that art freed from the purse strings would give it more scope and personality.' Robins showed work by Gustav Metzger, Roger Mitchell and Susan Bryan. The last exhibit before the closure of The Farm in May 1960 was Robins' painting machine, which produced a picture every twenty minutes.
Placesback to top
- Place made and portrayed: United Kingdom: England, London (sitters' coffee bar, 'The Farm', 14 Monmouth Street, London)
Events of 1960back to top
Current affairs
Prince Andrew is born, the third child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.The Contraceptive Pill is introduced in England, dramatically changing the nation's approach to sex and relationships, and significantly contributing to the 1960s culture of liberation.
Art and science
Penguin books defend D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover against charges of obscenity by demonstrating that the novel was of literary merit. The 'not guilty' verdict was seen as a victory for free speech and marked the beginning if a new era of liberalism.The satirical revue Beyond the Fringe launches the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.
International
Harold Macmillan delivers his 'wind of change' speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, announcing Britain's decision to grant independence to many of her colonies. The speech recognised the emergence of African nationalism, and criticised the policy of Apartheid in South Africa.Comments back to top
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