In ‘From Bow to Biennale: Artists of the East London Group’, David Buckman reveals for the first time how charismatic teacher John Cooper inspired working class East Enders into becoming one of the most successful exhibiting groups of the 1930s. Over many years he traced six then-surviving members to record their memories.
Progressing from evening classes in Bow, its artists achieved shows at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Tate Gallery, in the provinces and annual exhibitions in the West End. In 1936, two members showed at the Venice Biennale. With Cooper’s encouragement, his artists were involved in a documentary film, stage and poster activities and reviving the craft of mosaic.
The group gained huge British and American press coverage. In 1936, the Sunday Times judged it “the most interesting and promising of our younger art societies.” By then it had won the support of writers Arnold Bennett, J B Priestley and Osbert Sitwell, powerful dealer Joseph Duveen and politicians George Lansbury and Ramsay MacDonald.
