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Ben Uri’s small exhibition space in St John’s Wood was so packed for the private view of Uproar: The First 50 Years of the London Group last night that gallery staff needed to direct people-traffic in and out of each room of the gallery. It was an extraordinary showing of great British paintings from half a century. It didn’t matter too much that you couldn’t get close enough to read the panels because it was the works themselves which stole the show, from Matthew Smith to Kenneth and Mary Martin, David Bomberg to Lynn Chadwick: Modern British masterpieces on every wall, and sculptures deftly positioned into nooks and crannies.

Ivon Hitchens, Red Spring, 1955. Oil on canvas, 51.4 x 105.4 cm. Norwich Museum and Archaelogy Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

Lynn Chadwick, Untitled (Iron Sculpture), 1951. Iron and coloured glass, 51 x 59 x 42 cm. Estate of Lynn Chadwick.

David Glasser, Chair and Chief Executive of Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art shows off our latest co-publication.
Uproar! The First 50 Years of The London Group, 1913-63 edited by Sarah Macdougall and Rachel Dickson. October 2013. Hardback. £40. 224 pages. Includes 74 colour and 10 b&w illustrations.
