Festival of Britain, London: Ten Decades, a Review of British Taste, 1851-1951, 1951
End Date: 1951
Type: Exhibition
Description: 257 works of painting and sculpture were displayed. The organising committee consisted of Geoffrey Grigson, Robin Ironside, Benedict Nicolson, Roland Penrose, and Ewan Phillips. Grigson, Ironside and Nicolson were directly responsible for organising the show and selecting the exhibits.
Policy: In his 'Introduction' Geoffrey Grigson states that 'our aim is to indicate the waverings and interweavings of taste through a hundred years'.
Related Events
Incorporated into The Festival of Britain, 1951
1951
Officially part of the Festival of Britain celebrations.
Organizing Institution or Venue
Organized by Institute of Contemporary Arts
1951
Organised by the Institute in collaboration with the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Organized by Arts Council of Great Britain
1951
Organised in collaboration with the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Participants
Exhibitors included Henry Spencer Moore
1951
Moore lent a work entitled 'Interior-Exterior Form' to the exhibition. His 'Reclining Woman' (1930), in green Hornton stone, was lent by Peter Watson.
Exhibitors included Reginald Butler
1951
Butler exhibited a wrought iron work entitled 'Woman'. This was lent by E. C. Gregory.
Exhibitors included Jacob Epstein
1951
Epstein exhibited a work in bronze entitled 'Dolores'. The work was lent by the Leicester Galleries, London.
Exhibitors included (Jocelyn) Barbara Hepworth
1951
Hepworth lent an alabaster work entitled 'Two Forms with Sphere' to the show.
Exhibitors included William George Simmonds
1951
Simmonds' work, entitled 'Old Horse', in carved wych elm, was lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included Frank Owen Dobson
1951
The Arts Council lent Dobson's life size bronze entitled 'Lydia Lopokhova' (1926) to the show.
Exhibitors included Richard Louis Garbe
1951
Garbe's carved ivory work entitled 'Autumn' was lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included William Reid Dick
1951
Reid Dick lent his bronze entitled 'The Manchild' (1920) to the exhibition.
Exhibitors included Henri Alphonse Séraphin Marie Gaudier-Brzeska
1951
Gaudier-Brzeska's 'Red Stone Dancer' in alabaster was lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included (Arthur) Eric Rowton Gill
1951
Gill's 'Adam and Eve' (1920, sandstone) was lent by the executors of the late Sir William Rothenstein.
Exhibitors included (Edgar) Bertram Mackennal
1951
Mackennal's 'The Earth and the Elements' was exhibited posthumously, and lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included James Havard Thomas
1951
Thomas' 'Mrs Asher Wertheimer' (1907) was exhibited posthumously, lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included Siegfried (Stephen) Makepeace Wiens
1951
Wien's 'Girl and Lizard' was lent by the Tate Gallery.
Exhibitors included William Robert Colton
1951
Colton's 'The Girdle' was lent by the Tate Gallery and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included Alfred Gilbert
1951
Gilbert's 'Perseus Arming' was lent by the Fine Arts Society and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included Frederic Leighton
1951
Leighton's 'Man and Python' (representing sculpture in the period 1881-1890) was lent by the Fine Arts Society, and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included Briton Riviere
1951
Riviere's 'A Mighty Hunter before the Lord' (representing sculpture in the period 1881-1890) was lent by the Guildhall Art Gallery, and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included William Hamo Thornycroft
1951
Thornycroft's 'The Reaper' (representing the period 1871-1880) was lent by the Fine Arts Society, and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included George Frederic Watts
1951
Watts's 'Clytie' (representing the period 1871-1880) was lent by the Guildhall Art Gallery, and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included Alexander Munro
1951
Munro's 'Portrait of the Artist's Wife' (representing the period 1861-1870) was lent by Dr H. A. Munro, and exhibited posthumously.
Exhibitors included Thomas Woolner
1951
Woolner's 'Alfred Tennyson' (representing the period 1851-1860) was lent by Mrs C. M. Fletcher, and exhibited posthumously.
Organized by Roland Penrose
1951
Served on the organising committee.
Sources
Festival of Britain: 1951. Catalogue of Exhibits. South Bank Exhibition, 1951
1951
pp. 1-188
Citing this record
'Festival of Britain, London: Ten Decades, a Review of British Taste, 1851-1951, 1951', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/event.php?id=msib4_1276175999, accessed 22 Sep 2023]