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Postwar Modern

New Art in Britain 1945-1965

— ,Art Gallery
Postwar Modern installation shot

A revelatory new take on art in Britain after the Second World War, a period when artists had to make sense of an entirely altered world.

Postwar Modern explores the art produced in Britain in the wake of a cataclysmic war. Certainty was gone, and the aftershocks continued, but there was also hope for a better tomorrow. These conditions gave rise to an incredible richness of imagery, forms and materials in the years that followed. 

Focusing on ‘the new’, Postwar Modern features 48 artists and around 200 works of painting, sculpture, photography, collage and installation. It explores the subjects that most preoccupied artists, among them the body, the post-atomic condition, the Blitzed streetscape, private relationships and imagined future horizons. As well as reconsidering well-known figures, the exhibition foregrounds artists who came to Britain as refugees from Nazism or as migrants from a crumbling empire, in addition to female artists who have tended to be overlooked.
 

Tagged with: Art & design Postwar Modern Postwar Modern Our Time on Earth multibuy

The exhibition is generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, The London Community Foundation, The Clare McKeon Charitable Trust, and the Henry Moore Foundation. 

Read the exhibition guide

Please be aware that we are now a cashless box office. If you want to buy your ticket on the day then have your card ready.

Opening hours

Sun-Wed 10am-6pm (last entry 5pm)
Thu-Sat 10am-8pm (last entry 7pm)
2 and 3 Jun 12-8pm (last entry 7pm)

Joint ticket offer

Reviews

‘This is an enthralling exhibition‘
The Observer
‘That rare thing in a contemporary art gallery – a genuinely polemical exhibition‘
The Independent
‘Across all these works you find pop, minimalism, abstraction, expressionism and the seeds of countless other ideas, all because life in post-war Britain was wild, difficult, weird and oppressive.‘
Time Out
‘A poignant reminder of hope and humanity among the ruins‘
i News
‘This fascinating exhibition is crammed with surprises and delights‘
The Guardian
‘What makes this show special is the focus it puts on little-known and sometimes never-before-shown artists‘
The Times
‘But that’s postwar Britain: upbeat as well as fearful.‘
Evening Standard
‘Don’t miss this bold exhibition featuring Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon‘
The Sunday Times
‘An exhibition of works by emerging British artists of the 1950s and ’60s portrays an inventive — yet sombre — response to newfound freedoms‘
The Financial Times
‘This show succeeds in revealing numerous half-forgotten movements – and contains some out-and-out masterpieces‘
The Spectator

Artists

Adrian Heath
Alan Davie
Alison Smithson
Anthony Hill
Anwar Jalal Shemza
Aubrey Williams
Avinash Chandra
Bert Hardy
Bill Brandt
David Hockney
David Medalla
Denis Williams
Eduardo Paolozzi
Elisabeth Frink
Eva Frankfurther
Francis Newton Souza
Francis Bacon
Franciszka Themerson
Frank Auerbach
Frank Bowling
Gillian Ayres
Gustav Metzger
Hans Coper
Jean Cooke 
John Bratby

John Latham
John McHale
Kim Lim
Lee Miller
Leon Kossoff
Lucian Freud
Lucie Rie
Lynn Chadwick
Magda Cordell
Mary Martin
Nigel Henderson
Patrick Heron
Peter King
Peter Smithson
Prunella Clough
Richard Hamilton
Robert Adams
Robyn Denny
Roger Mayne
Shirley Baker 
Sylvia Sleigh
Victor Pasmore
William Scott
William Turnbull

Abbas Zahedi: Age of Many Posts

For Postwar Modern we have invited Abbas Zahedi to develop an expanded programme that explores resonances between the postwar period and now
Find out more

Discover

Elisabeth Frink

Postwar Modern: Artist on Artist

We asked three female contemporary female artists (Clare Twomey, Kate Malone and Pheobe Cummings) to speak about the life and work of three of the female artists in the our Postwar Modern exhibition (Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim and Lucie Rie).

Watch now
a Franciszka Themerson painting

Postwar Modern: Artist Spotlight

Curatorial Assistant Michal Goldschmidt introduces four artists from the exhibition: Anwar Jalal Shemza, Franciszka Themerson, Kim Lim and Shirley Baker. Drawing from their own writings, she shines a light on their life and work.

Read

Events

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of tours, talks, screenings and more, exploring the art created in Britain after the Second World War.

Supported by

Cockayne - Grants for the Arts logo
Henry Moore Foundation logo
The London Community Foundation logo

Schools

School Groups 

Entry to the Art Gallery is free for all students in Key Stages 1-3. A discounted group booking rate of £3 per student is available to students in formal education groups up to the age of 19. 

School Visiting Slots

We will be running a series of schools-only viewing slots for groups of up to 30 students to view the exhibition and receive a tour. The dates available are:

Thu 5 May 2-3pm 
Tue 10 May 10-11am
Thu 12 May 2-3pm
Tue 17 May 10-11am
Thu 19 May 2-3pm
Tue 24 May 10-11am
Thu 26 May 2-3pm
Tue 7 Jun 10-11am
Thu 9 Jun 2-3pm
Tue 14 Jun 10-11am
Thu 16 Jun 2-3pm

Please note that schools are still welcome to visit outside of these hours!

 

Tours and Workshops

We will also be offering guided tours of the exhibition for £35 per class of 30.

There is also the option of booking a workshop with multimedia artist Aphra Shemza either before or after your visit for £100 per class of 30.

Please contact us at [email protected] with all booking inquiries and questions.


Learning Resource

Download our Learning Resource, suitable for all key stage curriculum teachers. This resource is for and education leaders to help aid and inform their visit to the exhibition.

Art Gallery