The Ulster Unit

Other names: Northern Irish Guild of Artists (1933)
Foundation date: 1933
Dissolution date: 1934

Function: Art society, art guild

Policy: Northern Irish Guild of Artists aim:
"to corelate the various crafts of its members with one another, with the homes they are made to adorn and the age to which they belong."

Ulster Unit (1934): "In oil painting, watercolour, sculpture, modelling, etching and pottery, it is unanimously agreed that the artist must be consistent, simple, sincere, must not seduce the material from its natural integrity, but must seek the realisation of his consciousness of order within the physical limits imposed by wood, stone, clay, glass or paint."

History or description: First founded as the Northern Irish Guild of Artists by group of artists & some staff from Belfast School of Art in 1933. Became Ulster Unit 1934, formed in the likeness of Unit One.

1 Ulster Unit exhibition, December 1934. Show included approx. 80 works by 17 local artists & was the 1st to consist of avowedly modern work by artists living in the North of Ireland.
John Hewitt negotiated to show work at Ulster Museum in Spring 1935.

The group dissolved, possibly due to financial difficulties following the 1934 exhibition - although smaller inexpensive works by Elizabeth Clements & Jean McGregor sold well, only 4 paintings were sold (3 purchased by John Hewitt). Total sales amounted to £19-12-6, with only £1-3-0 going to finance the Unit.

Activities: exhibitions (members only)

Publications: exhibition catalogues

Products & Services

The Ulster Unit Exhibition of Contemporary Art, 1934
Cost: £11 18s. 11d.
Notes: Total cost of Exhibition

Exhibition Catalogue Sales, 1934
Cost: £12 19s. 9d.
Notes: Total made from Catalogue sales

% Made on sales at Exhibition, 1934
Cost: £1 3s.
Notes: Profit from sales, 1934

Subscriptions received, 1934
Cost: £16 10s.

Citing this record

'The Ulster Unit', 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/organization.php?id=msib3_1266506784, accessed 10 Jun 2023]