In the Footsteps of the East London Group

Book excerpt: Based on an exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery held in autumn 2024, In the Footsteps of the East London Group brings together 35 original paintings by members of the East London Group, paired with 22 new interpretations and responses from contemporary painters including David Hepher, Doreen Fletcher and Tim Craven. The East London Group were a group of artists who created paintings in the 1920s and 30s of buildings, streets, and London life. They were mostly working class, realist painters whose formal education had often stopped at an early age. The group developed from an art club at the Bethnal Green Men's Institute to a group of painters who exhibited alongside prominent artists of the day and attracted enormous press coverage and support. They were taught by Walter Sickert, John Albert Cooper, Phyllis Bray, and others. Curated by the Urban Contemporaries Group, a London-based collective who are interested in exploring the urban experience, the exhibition features 35 original paintings by members of the East London Group alongside 22 contemporary paintings inspired by them, from leading artists working in the urban landscape tradition, including Timothy Hyman, Philippa Beale, Nicole Poh and Marc Gooderham. Each artist selected for the show has a respect and curiosity for the history of the area and for these paintings made on the streets of Bow a hundred years ago, and which open a window onto the past life of east London and an earlier period in British art. This fascinating book brings together all the images from the exhibition in print, showcasing surprising pairings of paintings from a group of artists that are steadily growing in popularity and reputation with fresh interpretations from a new generation of painters.