B
en Uri is delighted to be working in partnership with the German Embassy London on this important exhibition “Finchleystraße”– as bus conductors used to call out at the local Finchley Road stop – recognising the influx of German-speaking émigrés to North London during the Nazi era and their profound enrichment of our own history and culture. Part of our wide exhibition programme exploring the contribution of refugee and migrant artists to the UK, it examines their ‘forced journeys’ and artistic legacies in this country. Ben Uri’s own history is one of migration: formed in London’s East End in 1915 by Jewish Easterneuropean émigré artisans working outside the cultural mainstream. Proudly reflecting its roots and cultural heritage, being named in the spirit of the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem founded in 1906, Ben Uri formed a collection of work by artists of British and European Jewish descent. Since 2000, the remit has widened to include works by émigré artists from a wide range of cultural, religious and geographical backgrounds and today the collection
numbers more than 1,300 works by over 400 artists: 67% émigrés, 27% women, and 33% contemporary. Interpreted within the wider contexts of art history, politics and society, both the collection as a whole and this exhibition in particular show how migrant artists continually express feelings about removal from the homeland and resettlement in a new country. These artists repaid their debts of safe haven to Great Britain by contributing much to their new home country’s visual arts and cultural mosaic and making an indelible mark, whether by practice, teaching or scholarship on 20th century British art. I would like to thank Tania Freiin von UslarGleichen, Charlotte Schwarzer and Alexandra Wolfelsberger-Essig from the Germany Embassy London and Ben Uri curators Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson, supported by Dessi Petrova and Rebecca Mitchell, our Learning Manager Alix Smith, and photographer Justin Piperger and designer Alan Slingsby, for realising this important exhibition. David J Glasser Chairman, Ben Uri Galley and Museum
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