Ashington Group

Last updated

The Ashington Group was a small society of artists from Ashington, Northumberland, composed largely of mine workers. They met regularly between 1934 and 1983 to encourage their progress. Although most of the men had no formal artistic training, the Group and its work became celebrated in the British art world of the 1930s and 1940s.

Contents

Origins

The Group began as the Ashington branch of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), which first advertised a class on 'Evolution' in 1927. After taking additional evening classes in varied subjects, the group decided to study art appreciation. [1] The WEA and Durham University arranged for a tutor, painter and teacher Robert Lyon (1894-1978), to instruct the group, but its members, mainly men employed by the Woodhorn and Ellington Collieries, quickly grew dissatisfied with the course. Lyon suggested that the group members try creating their own paintings as a means to develop an understanding and appreciation of art.

Critical success

By 1936 the group - many of whose members were committed to the principles of the Independent Labour Party - had drawn up an extensive list of regulations, by which all members had to abide, and named itself the Ashington Group. They held their first exhibition at the Hatton Gallery, part of Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. [2] A further exhibition was held in 1938 as an extension of the Mass Observation project.

By the early 1940s the Group had exhibited in London, and they continued to thrive after Lyon left to become the fourth Principal of Edinburgh College of Art. Lyon kept in contact with the Group's members, and wrote his MA thesis on his educational project with the Group. Over the next few years the work of the Group was noticed and praised by a number of prominent British artists and critics, such as Julian Trevelyan and Henry Moore. Their work was collected by prominent figures such as Helen Sutherland.

Post-war

After World War II, critical interest in the Group waned, but the men continued to meet weekly, producing new art and taking on new members. The critic William Feaver met Oliver Kilbourn in the early 1970s, who was one of the Group's central members. Feaver helped revive interest in their work, which was restored and featured in several touring exhibitions. In the 1980s, the Group's Permanent Collection was the first exhibition of western art to be shown in China after the Cultural Revolution. [2]

The Group's meeting hut was finally demolished in 1983; Kilbourn, the last of the Group's founding members, arranged for the paintings to be put in trust prior to his death in 1993. They are now held by Woodhorn Museum. [3] Feaver's book about the Group, Pitmen Painters: The Ashington Group 1934-1984, has been adapted by Lee Hall [3] as a play The Pitmen Painters.

The last surviving member of the Ashington Group John F. (Jack) Harrison, died in 2004, a few months short of his hundredth birthday.

The Permanent Collection of Ashington Group work can be seen at Woodhorn near Ashington, Northumberland. [4]

Artist Narbi Price completed a PhD based on a study of the legacy of the Ashington Group, at Newcastle University. Price curated a new exhibition in 2018 of their work loaned from private collections, entitled Pitmen Painters Unseen. [5]

Prominent members of the group

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucian Freud</span> British painter and engraver

Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933, when he was 10 years old, to escape the rise of Nazism. He became a British naturalized citizen in 1939. From 1942 to 1943 he attended Goldsmiths' College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

Lee Hall is an English playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film Billy Elliot (2000) and the book and lyrics for its adaptation as a stage musical of the same name. In addition, he wrote the play The Pitmen Painters (2007), and the screenplays for the films War Horse and Rocketman (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Hedley</span> British painter, woodcarver and illustrator (1848–1913)

Ralph Hedley was a realist painter, woodcarver and illustrator, best known for his paintings portraying scenes of everyday life in the North East of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashington</span> Town and parish in Northumberland, England

Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is 15 miles (24 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the south by the River Wansbeck. The North Sea coast at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea is 3 miles (5 km) away.

Marjorie Helen Arnfield, was an English artist who specialised in both industrial and rural landscapes, painting in oil, acrylic and watercolour. Her landscapes, particularly her paintings of Provence and Spain, are characterised by vivid colours and an impressionistic style. In an interview in the magazine Artists & Illustrators in 1998, Arnfield described her palette of colours, which included ochres, burnt siennas, cadmium, viridian, reds and blues, as "colours that sing".

Ashington railway station was a station on the Newbiggin-by-the-Sea branch of the Blyth and Tyne Railway network which served the town of Ashington in Northumberland, North East England. The station was closed by British Railways in 1964, but it has been the subject of a reopening campaign since at least the 1990s.

<i>The Pitmen Painters</i> (play) 2010 play written by Lee Hall

The Pitmen Painters is a play by Lee Hall based on the Ashington Group of painters. Following a sellout run at both the Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2007 and its transfer to the Royal National Theatre, it returned to the National for a limited season before heading out on a UK Tour. A Broadway production opened on 30 September 2010 following previews from 14 September 2010 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and played a limited run until 12 December 2010; it featured the original cast. The Pitmen Painters opened in London's West End in October 2011 at the Duchess Theatre. The Canadian premiere of The Pitmen Painters ran in February 2012 at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodhorn (museum)</span>

Oliver Percival Kilbourn was a British coal miner, painter, and founding member of the Ashington Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Painters of Montreal</span>

Jewish Painters of Montreal refers to a group of artists who depicted the social realism of Montreal during the 1930s and 1940s. First used by the media to describe participants of the annual YMHA-YWHA art exhibition, the term was popularized in the 1980s as the artists were exhibited collectively in public galleries across Canada. In 2009 the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec mounted a touring exhibition Jewish Painters of Montreal: A Witness to Their Time, 1930–1948, which renewed interest in the group in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

William Feaver is a British art critic, curator, artist and lecturer. From 1975–1998 he was the chief art critic of the Observer, and from 1994 a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University. His book The Pitmen Painters inspired the play of the same name by Lee Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedlington railway station</span> Disused railway station in Bedlington, Northumberland

Bedlington railway station was a railway station that served the town of Bedlington, Northumberland, England from 1850 to 1964 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The station was closed by British Railways in 1964, but it has been the subject of a reopening campaign since at least the 1990s.

Newsham railway station served the village of Newsham near Blyth, England, from 1851 to 1964 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway. It was located at the junction of the Percy Main to Blyth and Bedlington lines of the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The station was closed by British Railways in 1964, but it has been the subject of a reopening campaign since at least the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaton Delaval railway station</span> Disused railway station in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland

Seaton Delaval railway station served the village of Seaton Delaval in Northumberland, North East England, from 1841 to 1965 on what became part of the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The construction of a new station has been proposed nearby as part of the Northumberland Line project.

Seghill railway station served the village of Seghill, Northumberland, England from 1841 to 1965 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway.

Woodhorn was a railway station proposed as part of the project to reintroduce passenger rail services onto the Ashington, Blyth & Tyne Railway which closed to passenger traffic in 1964. It was initially proposed that the newly reopened line could terminate at a new station, close to the Woodhorn Colliery Museum and Northumberland Archives, rather than at Ashington, the previous station however revised plans, released in July 2019 appear to have dropped Woodhorn station from project scope.

David Watson is an artist and former shipyard worker born in 1944 at Albion Street, South Bank near Middlesbrough, UK. He attended Middlesbrough College where he studied art along with fellow South Bank artists Len Tabner and David Mulholland. At the age of nineteen earning a living became a priority and Watson went to work at Smiths Dock shipyard on the River Tees as a "red leader" painting the hulls of ships. Watson continued with his art for decades although remained largely unknown until the Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar submitted images of his work to the BBC's "Your Painting" website. In 2012 they were noticed by Mark Parham who now acts as Watson's curator. In 2014 the National Football Museum in Manchester acquired Watson's "Matchday at Ayresome Park".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumberland Line</span> Planned passenger rail route in NE England

The Northumberland Line is a planned railway project aimed at reintroducing passenger rail services to freight-only lines in South East Northumberland, North East England. Under the scheme, a new passenger service would link some of Northumberland's major population centres in Ashington and Blyth to the nearby city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Construction of new stations and works to upgrade the existing rail infrastructure to bring it up to passenger-carrying standards is reported as having begun by late August 2022, ahead of the anticipated launch of the new passenger service in December 2023.

Narbi Price born in Hartlepool, UK, in 1979, is a British painter and curator.

Mik Critchlow was a British social documentary and portrait photographer who made work about North East England, in particular about his home town of Ashington. A book of this work was published in 2019 and he had a solo exhibition at Woodhorn museum in 2021/22. Critchlow's work is held in the collection of Amber Film & Photography Collective.

References

  1. ↑ "Workers' Educational Association (WEA) - Adult Learning Course Provider UK - WEA News". 14 July 2008. Archived from the original on 14 July 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  2. 1 2 Wainwright, Martin (26 October 2006). "Pitmen Painters get royal seal of approval - and a gallery of their own". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 Feaver, William (24 January 2009). "William Feaver on a play about the "pitmen painters" who recorded their lives on canvas". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  4. ↑ "The Ashington Group Gallery". Museums Northumberland. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  5. ↑ Whetstone, David (25 May 2018). "Award-winning artist Narbi Price has followed in the footsteps of the pitmen painters". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.