London Calling

Major exhibition of British art

Featuring work by 13 artists, the exhibition offers a cross-section of modern British painting from London and also provides insight into parallel movements and artists who, during the same period and in the same place, used paint to express the world around them – but who have remained underexposed in the mainstream narrative. In total, the exhibition displays almost 70 works, of which approximately 45 exceptional works have been made available by Tate (Tate is the collective name for four museums in England).

School of London

The term 'School of London' was introduced in 1976 by the American Ronald B. Kitaj. It referred to a loose group of artists who knew each other, exhibited together and shared the nightlife of Soho. While abstraction dominated art worldwide, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach continued to paint reality. Their paintings depict bodies, gazes and interiors, but also something bigger: a society in flux, in which identity, gender and social relations were being redefined.

New icons

The exhibition poses questions that remain urgent. Who is seen? Who belongs? London Calling also explores ways to expand the narrative of the School of London: with space for parallel histories, oppressed perspectives and new icons. For example, there are paintings by Celia Paul, who was long known primarily as Lucian Freud's muse, we show Eva Frankfurthers' portraits of the working class to which she herself belonged, and visitors gain an insight into the vibrant reggae clubs and culture of the 1980s through the work of Denzil Forrester.