P. J. Crook

(Redirected from P.J. Crook)

Pamela June Crook MBE (born 1945), known professionally as P J Crook, is an English painter and sculptor. Her shows have appeared in London, France, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Estonia. Her professional name "P J Crook" lacks full stops; variant stylings such as "P. J. Crook" have appeared.

Crook was born in 1945 in Cheltenham, England, where she still lives.[1] She is represented by the Panter & Hall gallery on Pall Mall in London and Galerie Alain Blondel in Paris.

From a studio opposite her house, she manages compositions on a monumental scale — paintings can measure 2 × 4.5 metres and also paints small pictures, some no larger than 10 cm square. She works in tinted gesso, acrylic and sometimes in oil on canvas. She often paints crowds, either in motion in urban environments or standing still reading newspapers, many of which are on undulating 3D corrugated structures as with 'The Smell of the Horse, the Roar of the Crowd" (coll. Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum),"Other Mothers' Sons" (coll. Imperial War Museum, London) "Paper Hat" and "The Kiss" (coll. Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan). These have led onto her three dimensional sculptures mainly constructed out of found objects.

In 1996, Crook co-starred with musician Toyah Willcox on the HTV short film Rolinda Sharples: Painted out of History. The production led to a friendship between the two, and later on to Wilcox's husband, King Crimson/ProjeKcts guitarist Robert Fripp.[2] Wilcox and Fripp own some of Crook's paintings, and the latter has used them as covers for his group's releases.

Distinctions: patronage, trusts and honours

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Crook is a Patron of the National Star College Cheltenham; a Patron of Linc; a Patron of Artshape; a sometime Trustee and director of ACS (the Artists' Collecting Society); Patron of Cheltenham Open Studios; a Gloucestershire Ambassador; President of the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum; member of the Royal West of England Academy; Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. She is a member of the Chelsea Arts Club and the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire. PJ Crook has an honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Gloucestershire and is an honorary vice President of Gloucestershire College.

Crook was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to art.[3]

List of King Crimson album covers

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PJ Crook's paintings are featured on the covers of many King Crimson albums. Many of these albums are produced by Discipline Global Mobile (DGM), the music company founded by Robert Fripp. Crook retains the copyrights and moral rights to her artwork.[4][5][6]

Painting(s) Album Painting date Release date
The Nightwatch The Night Watch 1996 1997
The Four Seasons Epitaph
déjà VROOOM (booklet p. 7)
1990-94 1997
1999
Absent Lovers I [Nude] Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal
déjà VROOOM (booklet pp. 13–14)
1998 1998
1999
Absent Lovers II [Empty Bed] Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal 1998 1998
Now and Then déjà VROOOM (cover; booklet outer pages, pp. 1–6, 17, 18) 1997-8 1999
unidentified painting déjà VROOOM (booklet pp. 15–16) ???? 1999
Saint Genesius The ProjeKcts
The Deception of the Thrush: A Beginners' Guide to ProjeKcts
1988 1999
Piano Bar Live at the Jazz Café (front cover) 1998 1999
unidentified paintings Live at the Jazz Café ???? 1999
Masque Masque 1986 1999
Cirkus Cirkus: The Young Persons' Guide to King Crimson Live 1993 1999
Winter of Discontent Heavy ConstruKction 1993 2000
The Writing on the Wall Level Five (front cover)
The Power to Believe (outer back inlay)
The Power to Believe Tour Box
1993 2001
2003
déjà VROOOM Vrooom Vrooom (Live in Mexico City)
déjà VROOOM (booklet pp. 11–12)
1996 2001
1999
On Broadway Vrooom Vrooom (on Broadway)
Live in Argentina, 1994
1996 2001
2012
unidentified paintings Ladies of the Road ???? 2002
It Could be Us Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With (front cover) ???? 2002
Waiting Shoganai
Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With (back cover)
1986 2002
Fin de Siècle The Power to Believe
Level Five (back cover; CD label)
1999 2003
2001
unidentified painting The Power to Believe (inner back inlay)
Heaven & Earth (inner top lid)
???? 2003
The Outsider Eyes Wide Open
EleKtrik: Live in Japan
1994 2003
Fairground Neal and Jack and Me ???? 2004
unidentified paintings The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One – 1969–1974 ???? 2004
March 30 The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One (inner cover) 1993 2004
Harry's Bar The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One (disc 2) 1985 2004
Sunday (Reading in Bed) The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One (disc 3) ???? 2004
unidentified paintings The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume Two – 1981–2003 ???? 2004
Good Morning, M. Balladur The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume Two (inner cover) ???? 2004
unidentified paintings The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson ???? 2004
Tuesday The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson (front cover) 2002 2004
unidentified painting The Great Deceiver 1: Live 1973-1974 ???? 2007
unidentified painting The Great Deceiver 2: Live 1973-1974 ???? 2007
Expresso 40th Anniversary Tour Box
The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One (disc 1)
1997 2008
2004
Christian Children, Marching, Singing A Scarcity of Miracles ???? 2011
Nocturne The ReconstruKction of Light
Heaven & Earth
2012 2019

References

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  1. ^ Crooke P. J. Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Bridgeman Art Library. Accessed 22 January 2007.
  2. ^ "Bredonborough". Dgmlive.com. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  3. ^ "No. 59808". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2011. p. 15.
  4. ^ The various back covers and booklet credit pages of each King Crimson release her work is featured on.
  5. ^ Bambarger, Bradley (11 July 1998). "Fripp Label Does It His Way". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 28. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 86 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Atton (2004, p. 153): Atton, Chris (2004). "6 Fan culture and the Internet". An alternative Internet. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 138–154. ISBN 978-0-7486-1770-8.
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