Independent Group (art movement)
The Independent Group (IG) met at the
First session (1952)
The Independent Group had its first meeting in April 1952, which consisted of artist and sculptor
Second session (1954)
The Group did not meet during late 1953 or early 1954, as they were concentrating on delivering a public programme of lectures at the ICA, Aesthetic Problems of Contemporary Art. New members joined the Independent Group for its second full session, including the architects Alison and Peter Smithson. The Smithsons along with Paolozzi, Henderson, Ronald Jenkins, Toni del Renzio, Banham and others staged the highly significant exhibition, Parallel of Life and Art at the ICA in the Autumn of 1953. Reyner Banham stood down as chair of the Independent Group, as he was busy with his PhD thesis at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and in late 1954 Dorothy Morland asked the art critic Lawrence Alloway and fine artist John McHale to reconvene the Independent Group for its second session. The painter Magda Cordell and her husband, music producer Frank Cordell joined the Independent Group at this point.
The second session focused on American mass culture such as Western movies,
This Is Tomorrow (1956)
In 1956 the group came to wider public attention with its participation in the exhibition This Is Tomorrow. The IG ceased to meet formally by 1955, but the IG members continued to meet informally right up to 1962/63, and the connections between the various members continued to bear fruit in the subsequent years of their creative practice.
References
- ^ a b c Livingstone, M., (1990), Pop Art: A Continuing History, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
- ^ Arnason, H., History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1968.
- ^ Melly, George. Revolt into Style. Pop Arts in Britain, London, A. Lane, 1970.
- ^ ″Enduardo Paolozzi″, Exhibit Catalog, Hefte der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, 1977.
- ^ Tate Collection image: I was a Rich Man's Plaything
Bibliography
- Anne Massey, The Independent Group: Modernism and Mass Culture in Britain, 1945–59, Manchester University Press, 1995.
- David Robbins (Ed) The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and The Aesthetics of Plenty, MIT Press, 1990.
External links
- The Independent Group website Archived 18 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine