Major new essay by James Hyman on British Figurative Art for the Ben Uri Gallery

James Hyman has written a scholarly but personal essay for a substantial new publication on Jewish Art, Out of Chaos.

 

The essay is entitled 

Je suis Juif. A Personal Response to British Figurative Painting (1940-2015)

 

The publication coincided with the exhibition Out of Chaos - Ben Uri: 100 years in London 2 July - 13 December 2015. 

 

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum was founded in 1915, in Whitechapel's Jewish ghetto in the East End of London, by émigré Russian artist Lazar Berson, who previously exhibited with Chagall in Paris. Effectively closed after losing its space in 1996, the gallery and museum has been based in St. John's Wood since 2002, following the election of a new Board in October 2000. A new strategic direction was built around scholarship and expanding the remit from solely Jewish artists by incorporating the wider, diverse immigrant artist experience in Britain since 1900.

 

In the past twenty years Ben Uri has curated some 100 distinctive exhibitions, toured to some 25 different locations worldwide and written and published some 40 scholarly catalogues and monographs which are distributed nationally and internationally. The majority of exhibitions were curated around Ben Uri Collection works and supplemented by loans from other distinguished museums across the country. The museum uniquely specialises in the work, lives, and contributions of Jewish and immigrant artists to Britain since 1900.

 

Ben Uri surpasses ethnic, cultural and religious obstacles to engagement within the arts sector, addresses contemporary and historical issues of identity and migration, and celebrates, researches and records the rich Jewish and immigrant experience in the visual arts since 1900.

 

Ben Uri aims to connect with the largest audiences from different communities and countries. Presenting and sharing art differently, we have encouraged people to explore their own and their community's identity and creativity. We engage and deliver this outcome through three distinctive and fully interlinked divisions.

 

July 2, 2015
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