‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ - Estelle Lovatt FRSA
The London based artist Deborah Azzopardi emerged from a background in commercial art, where her clients included household names such as Bovril, Bisto and Disney. It was enjoyable but demanding work, and after a serious illness some years ago she decided to concentrate on painting subjects that really meant something to her, reasoning that ‘Life’s short, and if you do what you love then everything else will eventually fall into place’. Her mother was a fashion designer at Jaeger and Deborah believes that this is where much of her creativity derives from.
Deborah works in acrylic, usually on board or canvas, and claims that her sense of mischief and black humour inspires much of her subject matter. She has reached worldwide recognition over the last few years with her iconic ‘Sshh’, which recently went on sale for £350,000 as part of her 35th anniversary retrospective exhibition.
She acquired her worldwide fame for the joyous Pop Art images she has created over the past 40 years. Her unique and feminine take on contemporary art is best described by the esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt: ‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive ‘Olympia’; Boucher’s thought-provoking... ‘Louise O’Murphy’ and Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, ‘The Swing’.... Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.”
The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.