A landmark publication on the School of London, showcasing how postwar British artists like Bacon, Hockney, Freud, and Rego transformed figurative painting and the human form.
This richly illustrated publication accompanies a major exhibition organized by Kunstmuseum Den Haag in collaboration with Tate, exploring the School of London — a group of postwar artists who redefined figurative painting in Britain. Featuring more than 70 works by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Paula Rego, Frank Auerbach, and their contemporaries, the book traces how these painters captured the human condition in an era of social and cultural upheaval. While Paris and New York led the charge in abstraction, London fostered a quieter yet profound revolution centered on the human body and psyche. Through essays and artworks, the catalog reveals how these artists grappled with shifting notions of identity, intimacy, and power, offering a compelling perspective on 20th-century art and reaffirming London’s role as a crucible of postwar creativity.
Foreword by General Director Kunstmuseum The Hague
Essay by Gregory Salter, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham,
(specialising in postwar British art)
Essay by Sanjukta Sunderason, assistant professor University of Amsterdam,
(specialising in Modernism and activist art)
Essay by Elena Crippa, former curator Tate and Thijs de Raedt, curator at
Kunstmuseum The Hague and of the exhibition
Catalogue with all 75 works in the exhibition
Portrait and group photos of the participating artists
A selection of iconic images of London in the second half of the 20th
century, spanning the post-war period to around 2000
Gregory Salter, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham, (specialising in postwar British art). Sanjukta Sunderason, assistant professor University of Amsterdam, (specialising in Modernism and activist art). Elena Crippa, former curator Tate and Thijs de Raedt, curator at Kunstmuseum The Hague.
