Art by Cornelis Makkink

We find the art of Cornelis Makkink throughout A Clockwork Orange (1971) as well as Dropout (1970) by Tinto Brass.

In A Clockwork Orange in Alex’s bedroom we see a graphic poster by Cornelius Makkink of a naked woman lying back with legs open. The provocative, colourful pornographic paintings which dominate the yoga loving house of ‘Cat Lady’ in A Clockwork Orange are also by Cornelius Makkink.

Some of the same artwork’s appear in Dropout as does the Rocking Machine phallic sculpture by Cornelius’s brother Herman Makkink.

A Clockwork Orange was filmed in 1971, a year or so after Dropout and rjbuffalo.com offers up some reasoning on why such distinctive artworks might have appeared in both films:”Kubrick and his wife visited the Makkink studios at SPACE in 1969, and thus their discovery of this artwork perhaps preceded Tinto’s discovery…Kubrick may have borrowed the idea to use these artworks for A Clockwork Orange only after having seen Dropout…the best explanation is probably that Stanley and Tinto separately discovered the Makkinks’ work at about the same time, and each licensed the rights to use the same pieces…Remember also that back in 1968, Paramount Pictures, which then held the film-rights option on Burgess’s novel, had hired Tinto to direct the picture, which was to have starred Mick Jagger as Alex and the Rolling Stones as the Droogs. Tinto totally bungled that opportunity and he was fired as soon as he was hired”