Frank Norman (Soho Night & Day) – Century Club, UK

BEHIND BARS: FRANK NORMAN’S PRISON PAINTINGS REDISCOVERED
Rarely Seen Works from the Celebrated Writer and Playwright Go on Display at The Century

Exhibition Runs: 7th January – 29th March 2025

The Century, in collaboration with Geraldine Norman and Joe Daniel, is proud to present BEHIND BARS: Frank Norman’s Prison Paintings Rediscovered—an exhibition showcasing the raw and evocative artworks created by Frank Norman while serving time in prison in the 1950s and after his release. Featuring over 30 of the paintings Norman produced during this transformative period, this is the most comprehensive exhibition of his visual work to date.

Frank Norman (1930–1980) is best known for his acclaimed prison memoir Bang to Rights—which was championed by Encounter magazine and featured a foreword by Raymond Chandler—as well as the smash-hit musical Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, produced by Joan Littlewood with music by Lionel Bart. However, long before Norman became a literary sensation, he found an unexpected creative outlet behind bars: painting.

“I got so absorbed in painting that at times I wasn’t in the nick at all,” Norman later wrote. “Every spare moment I had, I was either drawing or painting or reading about painters.”

During his sentence, Norman immersed himself in art classes and devoured books from the prison library. His works—vivid portraits, stark interiors, and figurative studies—are deeply personal, capturing both the harsh reality of confinement and a desperate urge for creative escape. Echoing influences of Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, his paintings reflect the same gritty yet lyrical storytelling that later defined his writing.

After his release, Norman emerged not only as an author but as a vital figure in Soho’s Bohemian scene, sharing a squat with Lucian Freud and becoming a fixture at The Colony Room Club alongside Francis Bacon and Jeffrey Bernard. His writing and art documented the underbelly of mid-century London, chronicling the world of hustlers, entertainers, and misfits with an authenticity few could match.

This exhibition coincides with a complementary show at The French House, featuring Soho Night and Day, a collection of Jeffrey Bernard’s photographs of Soho in the 1960s, originally published alongside Norman’s text as a love letter to the Soho he knew and loved and recently reissued by ACC Art Books.

BEHIND BARS: Frank Norman’s Prison Paintings Rediscovered offers a rare opportunity to view the artistic legacy of one of Britain’s most fascinating cultural figures. The exhibition runs at The Century until 29 March 2025.