Waiting for the Cortina Boys

Jock McFadyen 1950

Summary

A stylised caricatured depiction of two young women, wearing tight skirts and high heels, sitting on a bench on Roman Road in East London. The girl in the foreground has her leg in plaster which is covered with signatures. She holds a cigarette in her left hand, which rests on her knee. She and her friend look to the left, her friend seated at the other end of the bench, holding her ankle with her right hand. Rubbish is scattered on the floor before the bench, including a copy of the Sun tabloid newspaper. A road winds round them in an inverted 'U' shape, with a bent barrier on the right side. A red car carrying young men makes its way along the road to the left. Behind the car a dog sits on top of a grassy wasteland, howling up at the sky. This is part of a collection of works depicting 'real' locations in East London, injecting the work with a strong sense of realism, whereas before the artist had used imagined locations.