The works of contemporary British artists who share a fascination for the human figure, landscapes and cityscapes will be featured in the Yale Center for British Art's newest exhibition, "The School of London and Their Friends: The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians."
In the exhibit, which opens Oct. 11, over 70 masterpiece paintings and drawings from the Elaine and Melvin Merians Collection will be on public view for the first time. The assemblage of works is the foremost collection in America and Britain devoted exclusively to the School of London.
The term "School of London' was coined by American-born painter Ronald Kitaj in order to draw attention to the range and power he found in contemporary British art after World War II. The expression identified a small group of prominent London artists who shared a common trait: an interest in the human figure as well as the environment. Lucian Freud was one of the original members of the movement along with Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, Euan Uglow and Kitaj.
Also on view in the exhibit are works by a younger generation of painters influenced by School of London artists, including Christopher Bramham, Peter Doig, Tony Bevan and others. They, too, were concerned with the immediate world, depicting both the human form and urban landscapes.
School of London artists "are a potent reminder of the tradition of modern British realist painting that extends through the 20th century to such important artists as Walter Sickert and the Camden Town School, back to Matthew Smith, Paul Nash and Wyndham Lewis," says Patrick McCaughey, director of the Yale Center for British Art and curator of the exhibition.
"For many, their roots in London and London studio practice are strong and self-evident," he adds. "For others removed from the London scene, such as David Hockney, there still persists a grip on the immediacy of place. The painters live and work off of the environment. The relationship is strong and unbreakable."
Elaine and Melvin Merians collected the paintings and drawings on display over the past 20 years. "We have gotten to know most of the artists over a period of time," says Melvin Merians. "One of the great things about collecting contemporary art, I feel, is to know and have a relationship with the artist. It gives greater insight into their work and one has an opportunity to ask them all sorts of questions."
McCaughey notes that the Merians's collection is important for its "comprehensive overview" of the School of London, and adds, "It is equally important as a vivid reminder that artists in Britain have continued to produce work of the highest quality no matter how the winds of fashion have blown. This collection demonstrates powerfully to the viewer that the tradition of painting and drawing as a deeply humanist art persists to the close of the 20th century."
The exhibit will run through Jan. 7. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with an essay by Richard Cork, chief art critic for The Times (London) and author of "A Bitter Truth," "Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age" and "Vorticism and Its Allies." The publication also features an interview with the Merianses and a detailed description of their collection.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the center will host a panel discussion on opening night, Wednesday, Oct. 11. Panelists include Cork; Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain; and Andrew Forge, a Yale painter and critic. The free event will begin at 5:15 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St.
In addition, the center will present a special conversation series between artists and contemporary collectors as part of its Wednesday evening programs. Titled "Viewpoints: Artists and Collectors Speak," the series will begin on Oct. 18 with featured speaker Paula Rego, a native of Portugal who lives in London and is featured in the exhibition. The guest speaker on Wednesday, Oct. 25, will be collector and architect Colin St. John Wilson, who has achieved international fame as the architect of the new British Library at St. Pancras and as a commentator on modern architecture. The final conversation in the series, on Nov. 1, will feature artist Peter Blake, a postwar British painter who was loosely associated with the Independent Group, along with artists such as Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney and Joe Tilson. Blake later moved from London and entered a "rural phase" in which he produced fairy pictures.
The Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 432-2800 or visit the center's website at www.yale.edu/ycba.
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