East London Group

They exhibited alongside prominent artists of the day, and attracted enormous press coverage and support, taught by John Albert Cooper, Phyllis Bray, Walter Sickert and others.

The charismatic Cooper had served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War and then attended the Slade School of Fine Art.

[7] East London Group artists were able to see beauty in the most unlikely subjects, bringing ‘a warm feeling to their art which is transmitted to the viewer’.

In April 1927, the Daily Chronicle reported on the Bethnal Green Institute exhibition with headlines such as "Workmen as artists" and "Window cleaner’s work in East End show".

[8] Albert Turpin was the window cleaner who went on to become mayor of Bethnal Green, and made it his mission to record in paintings all the houses and streets around his home before the developers destroyed them.

[9][10] Other exhibitors included Henry Silk (basket maker),[11] Elwin Hawthorne (errand boy) and C Warren (park-keeper) and B R Swinnerton (piano factory worker).

A major breakthrough took place when the West End Lefevre Gallery agreed to give Cooper's students a first exhibition, now as the East London Group, in November 1929.

The show was an enormous commercial success, too, with interest shown by Mayfair art dealers and high society (including Ramsay MacDonald, Lady Cunard, Viscount D’Abernon, and Edward Marsh, a perceptive collector).

Group exhibitions were also held outside London and members participated in numerous mixed shows, often alongside prominent artists.

In 1936, works by Elwin Hawthorne and Walter Steggles were included in Britain's contribution to the 1936 Venice Biennale, alongside well known and established artists.

Phyllis Bray painted three large murals at the New People's Palace (now part of Queen Mary, University of London).

[19] John Cooper played a major part in developing mosaic work through his courses at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

[31] There is keen bidding at sales, notably Sotheby's[32][33][34] and Christie's South Kensington, and a very active and participatory Twitter account.