First Thursday Late Opening

The final out of hours chance to see The Working Artist: The East London Group, selected and curated by writer broadcaster Michael Rosen and radio producer film-maker Emma-Louise Williams, showcasing paintings, sketchbooks and ephemera from this historic and largely forgotten Group of East End artists who shook up the art work in the late twenties and thirties.

Discovered in family collections and public institutions across the country, many paintings are returning to Bow for the first time since their production. With a focus on member Albert Turpin – who, as window cleaner, fireman and leading member of the anti-fascist movement, was the ultimate ‘working artist’ – three new public works of art, commissioned to commemorate the Group, have been unveiled alongside the show from Lindsey Mendick, Marcus Orlandi and Maxima Smith.

“[we need] painters who can see beauty in the life around them. Grim East End streets are suffused with real beauty. We need to get back to humanity in art”

John Cooper (1930), teacher and founder of the East London Group.

IMAGE: Hackney Empire, Courtesy the artist’s family © A.E.Turpin Estate, 2017