New Society of Artists

[3][4] The inaugural exhibition was to have been at the Guildhall Art Gallery on 8 June,[5] but instead it opened at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street, not far from the RA, on 3 July.

[6] The location had been hired for five weeks each summer thanks to the efforts of Charles Robert Chisman[7] and Percy Edsall, “both secretaries of well-known art societies”.

[5] A Yorkshire newspaper reported that the exhibition opened with nearly 400 paintings and drawings, “and a very ordinary lot they are, showing in several instances marked imitative tendencies”.

[4] One of the most prominent exhibitors was the Welsh artist Miss Margaret Lindsay Williams, with two works: “Lorenzo Babini” and “The Imprisoned Soul”.

[6] The following year, the first provincial exhibition of works by NSA members was opened by the Mayor on 10 February at the Museum and Art Gallery, Burton on Trent.

In June 1932 the annual exhibition opened in London, but this time under the name of the United Society of Artists; members were entitled to use the post-nominal UA.

The aim is rather, while interfering in no way with the freedom of the members, to adhere to and if possible develop the best traditions of British Art, in preference to imitating those of Continental nations.

An additional reason for the change of name was to avoid any misunderstanding due to the use of the word New, which is part of the title of an older and more distinguished Art Society.