The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold: EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND

Dubbed by Januszczak as the ‘Jackson Pollock of the biro’, this survey, which has been curated by the artist’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke, is drawn from a body of work that has never been shown in public before. Executed in a variety of media, predominantly coloured felt tip and biro, these highly idiosyncratic and sometimes disturbing drawings are scrawled and scribbled onto sheets of paper torn from foolscap jotter pads, hotel stationery and aeroplane sick bags, and were created largely whilst he toured the world with his band, The Pogues.

Amongst these are bawdier offerings; drawings containing phalluses with spiralling testicles entering the mouths of purple-haired and befringed females. The word ‘GLORCH!’ appears around each of their heads and these Basquitesque flourishes appear in many of the works. The show also includes portraits: Lady Victoria features a pair of pale pink lips surrounded by hundreds of interlocking bubbles. Within this are love hearts, a ringed planet and a solitary crucifix can be found. Carolan sees the Angel possibly refers to Turlouh O’ Carolan, the 17th century blind Celtic harpist and has echoes of the German Expressionists. The Measure of my Dreams and Woman with Bottle are softer works, in which MacGowan employs watercolour washes, picking out the subjects figures in black ink.