Indica Gallery
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Indica Gallery was a counterculture art gallery in Mason's Yard (off Duke Street), Mayfair, London, England during the late 1960s, in the basement of the Indica Bookshop co-owned by John Dunbar, Peter Asher and Barry Miles. It was supported by Paul McCartney and hosted a show of Yoko Ono's work in November 1966 at which Ono first met John Lennon.[1]
The International Times newspaper was started in the basement of the Indica bookshop.[2]
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[edit] Paul McCartney's involvement
John Dunbar, Peter Asher and Barry Miles decided to start the Indica Gallery in September 1965, as an outlet for art and literature.[3] They found empty premises at 6 Masons Yard, which was in the same courtyard as the Scotch of St James club,[4] which McCartney frequently visited.[3] McCartney was the Indica bookshop's first customer - before it was officially opened - as he used to look through the books in the basement at night, and leave a note for the books he had taken to be put on his account.[3] Some of the first books he bought were Ed Sanders "Peace Eye Poems'", "and the Mind" by Deropp, and "Gandhi on Non-violence".[5] The wood that was needed for the shelves and shop counter was picked up from the lumber yard by Dunbar and Miles in McCartney's Aston Martin car.[5] Artists such as Pete Brown also helped in the renovation of the Indica, and Brown remarked that as he was helping to paint the interior, he would often look over his shoulder and see McCartney sawing a piece of wood.[6]
McCartney's girlfriend, Jane Asher, donated the shop's first cash till,[7] which was an old Victorian till that she had played with as a young girl.[7] McCartney helped to draw the flyers - which were used to advertise the Indica's opening - and also designed the wrapping paper.[6][8] Barry Miles later introduced McCartney to the works of William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg,[9] and their conversations were infused with subjects such as Buddhism, drugs, and 'pataphysics, which McCartney later put into the lyrics of Maxwell's Silver Hammer.[9] After one evening at Lennox Gardens, McCartney had an idea that he told to John Lennon the next day, which was an album title called "McCartney goes too far", which Lennon thought was a great title, and insisted that McCartney should do it.[10] In 1966, the Indica bookshop was separated from the Indica Gallery, and moved to 102 Southampton Row in the summer of 1966.[11]
[edit] 2006 exhibition
An exhibition at Riflemaker (a gallery on Beak Street, London, England) in November 2006 re-visits Indica 40 years after it was closed. It includes work by the original artists including Liliane Lijn, Boyle Family/Mark Boyle and Carlos Cruz-Diez as well as a younger generation of artists whose work relates to some of the ideas first presented there.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Art & the 60s: Episode 3, BBC Two, 7 August 2004.
- ^ Miles. pp237-238
- ^ a b c Miles. pp223-224
- ^ Friends of the Scotch of St James 11 November 2006
- ^ a b Miles. p225
- ^ a b Miles. p227
- ^ a b Miles. p226
- ^ Indica wrapping paper guardian.co.uk - November 5, 2006
- ^ a b Miles. p233
- ^ Miles. p234
- ^ Miles. p237
[edit] References
- Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4.
- Harry, Bill (2002). The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0716-1.
- See also INDICA for reference to a psychedelic, electronic, rock band.
