School of London

About

In 1976, the American-born painter Ronald Brooks Kitaj curated the influential exhibition The Human Clay at the Hayward Gallery in London. At the time Abstraction and Minimal Art reigned as the predominant styles and Kitaj sought to reinstate the neglected values of figuration in art. Kitaj's controversial exhibition chiefly consisted of figurative painting and drawing by a selection of his contemporaries. In his catalogue text for The Human Clay, Kitaj coined the phrase ‘School of London' to refer to the exhibiting artists, including himself, all of whom were primarily concerned with figurative art. The phrase has stuck to identify the group of artists working in London at that time who were each resolutely pursuing figurative painting in the face of the prevailing avant-garde. The White Room Gallery is delighted to bring together a selection of original works and limited edition prints by the principal artists associated with the School of London, including Kitaj himself, Auerbach, Freud, Bacon, Hockney and many more of London's prominent artists.