Eye Magazine

Brian, who died in January, had a particular skill for the iconographic; channeling his inner Magritte in Traffic Island, Wandsworth, London (1977); his inner Picabia for his portrait of George Melly (1990); and the nineteenth century French neoclassical in Liam, steel fixer (2007, see ‘Off the rails’ in Eye 66), to name but a few of hundreds.

Throughout the 1980s Brian’s work resonated in popular culture through a series of ‘classic’ records covers such as Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp (which, for some reason, reminds me of the sandals in Jan van Eyck’s The Arnofini Marriage Portrait of 1434 – it should be noted that Brian was a regular visitor to the National Gallery in London); Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame and Echo and the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here.

I was introduced to Brian through my creative partner at Da Gama, Alex McDowell (see below). Alex had already worked with Brian on Iggy Pop’s album cover Soldier (1979) and then at Da Gama Alex commissioned Brian for the Psychedelic Furs album Mirror Moves (1984) and, in the same year, for the singles cover of Dazzle by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

In 1986, following the death of his father and his good friend Barney Bubbles, Brian wanted to publish a ‘memorial’ to them in book form. The only instruction from Brian was that there will a limited print run (350 copies), 21 photographs and its title was to be Open.

Taking the title as an instruction our immediate response was to create something that was ‘closed’, and as with Egyptian tombs (reference to the British Museum often peppered conversations with Brian) the act of opening would be multilayered and imbued with ritual. To ‘open’ the book, the seal of the outer box had to be broken; to get into the book the sticker that bound the front and back covers together also had to be broken; then to access each and every one of the photographs the edges of the concertina had to be individually cut, because the photographs were printed as quadratones on the inside of the concertina, one per double page spread, each with its own tissue overlay.

As a self-published book with complex production it was going to be an expensive undertaking, but Brian didn’t hesitate. As with his photography the idea was key; its rightful execution paramount. Given its provenance, it was a relief to see that impish grin reappear. Brian will be sorely missed.

John Warwicker, designer, professor, VCA, University of Melbourne, Australia

I wonder how I met Brian, writes Alex McDowell. Maybe through Terry Jones (see Eye 30). Brian was grounded and dour and inspiring and I loved the times we collaborated and I learned a lot. After Brian and I worked with Siouxsie, then we worked with Iggy Pop. First on his album and singles, and then he asked us to make a video for him (my first), and we put together the most ramshackle team in Brian’s studio and spent a day shooting Iggy in a fridge. Fond memories!

Brian, your grumpy brilliance will be sorely missed.

Alex McDowell, creative director, Experimental Design, Los Angeles, US

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