Birmingham Artists Committee

The Birmingham Artists Committee was an English artist collective that organised exhibitions of painting and sculpture in Birmingham between 1947 and 1952.[1]

The committee was organised by the art critic Robert Melville and artists including Oscar Mellor and Trevor Denning[2] to break the stranglehold of the conservative Royal Birmingham Society of Artists on the exhibition of work by living artists in the city.[3]

Its exhibitions were an important post-war outlet for the Birmingham Surrealists, showing the work of Conroy Maddox, John Melville, Emmy Bridgwater and the young Desmond Morris. Other notable artists represented included CoBrA member William Gear and the sculptor Gordon Herickx.

Although there was no organisational link, The Birmingham Artists Committee was acknowledged as a catalyst by the artists who founded the Ikon Gallery in 1964.[4]

References
  1. Stevenson, Diana (2004). "Interview - Trevor Denning". In Watkins, Jonathan; Stevenson, Diana (eds.). Some of the best things in life happen accidentally: the beginning of Ikon. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery. p. 113. ISBN 1-904864-02-3.
  2. Levy, Silvano (2003). "Birmingham Years 1933-1956". The Scandalous Eye: The Surrealism of Conroy Maddox. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-85323-559-7. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
  3. Denning, Trevor (2001). "Birmingham Artists Committee". In Sidey, Tessa (ed.). Surrealism in Birmingham 1935-1954. Birmingham: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. p. 86. ISBN 0-7093-0235-5. Our purpose since the committee's formation in 1947 has been to exhibit the works of what we consider to be the best local artists. If any bias is shown at all it is in favour of those artists whose work is otherwise denied a public showing because of its failure to conform to the somewhat conservative standards of the older established societies here - in brief, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and its offshoots.
  4. Watkins, Jonathan (2004). "Some of the best things in life happen accidentally". In Watkins, Jonathan; Stevenson, Diana (eds.). Some of the best things in life happen accidentally: the beginning of Ikon. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery. pp. 36–38. ISBN 1-904864-02-3.


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