- Venue
- PM Gallery & House
- Location
- London
This month saw the launch of the London Group’s centenary show at the Pitzhanger Manor House in Ealing. To mark one hundred years of supporting artists in the capital, the exhibition looks to celebrate the work of all 88 established members across 100 unique works.
Though painting does largely dominate the exhibition, the sizes of the works and their aesthetic approaches are all so overwhelmingly different and diverse that it does take quite some time to really feel that you have absorbed what it is on show. These works are then joined by other pieces of sculpture, video installation, drawing and even performance.
Pitzhanger Manor itself is part-way through a continued restoration program that hopes to see the site become a premier arts venue and visitor centre. This draws an intriguing reflection to an institution like the London Group that itself is at a cross-roads between its own rich historical heritage and verging into what it hopes will be a prosperous future for the next century. The setting plays an influential role, not just in the expansive space it allows for the exhibition, but the chance it offers to see the pieces hung in the former retreat of Sir John Soane alongside cherished works by the likes of William Hogarth.
Though all of the works displayed are from current members, with such an array of old-timers such as Frank Bowling and Graham Mileson, it does afford somewhat of an insight into the decadent heritage of the group. Late members of the group such as Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis, LS Lowry and David Hockney testify to the prestige and influence of the collective over its one hundred year presence. As far as President Susan Haire is concerned, the group retains this vitality and relevance going forward. The group looks forward to using this centenary year to extend the reach of the group.
The works on show from the artists veer between figurative representations and abstraction. We see a lot of works that playfully indulge into the use of colour and pattern, perhaps marking the more visually sensuous aspect of our appreciation, with no forthright cognitive intention or idea. This itself becomes incredibly refreshing, how amongst such an elite group of contemporaries works that choose to take up a more forward-thinking technical innovation are presented and discussed with little complacency or pretences about their own experimentation. They work very much towards an end-result that is the embodiment of itself.
The eclecticism of the exhibition lends itself well to the group’s fundamental purpose of maintaining a collectively balanced view actively supportive of diversity and artistic licence; vehemently opposed to the flippant tides and turns of cultural fashion. It looks not just at supporting artists, but safeguarding the ongoing integrity of their endeavour over time.
The exhibition remains on show at the Pitzhanger Manor Gallery & House until March 9th.
