The Birmingham Artists Committee was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

artist collective that organised exhibitions of

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

between 1947 and 1952. The committee was organised by the art critic Robert Melville and artists including

Oscar Mellor Oscar Mellor (7 June 1921 – 2005) was an English surrealist artist and publisher of poetry. An associate of the Birmingham Surrealists in the 1940s, he founded the Fantasy Press in the 1950s, publishing works by poets such as Philip Larkin, Kin ...

and

Trevor Denning Trevor J. Denning (6 December 1923 – 23 October 2009) was an English artist, sculptor, writer, and art teacher who was influential in the Birmingham art community. Biography Denning was born in Moseley, Birmingham, studying painting and gra ...

to break the stranglehold of the conservative

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a re ...

on the exhibition of work by living artists in the city. Its exhibitions were an important post-war outlet for the

Birmingham Surrealists The Birmingham Surrealists were an informal grouping of artists and intellectuals associated with the Surrealist movement in art, based in Birmingham, England from the 1930s to the 1950s. The key figures were the artists Conroy Maddox and John Me ...

, showing the work of

Conroy Maddox Conroy Maddox (27 December 1912 – 14 January 2005) was an English surrealist painter, collagist, writer and lecturer; and a key figure in the Birmingham Surrealist movement.Morris, Desmond (2018), ''The Lives of the Surrealists''. He wa ...

John Melville John William Melville (25 August 1902 – 8 December 1986) was a self-taught British Surrealist painter. He is described by Michel Remy in his book ''Surrealism in Britain'' as one of the "harbingers of surrealism" in Great Britain. He was, a ...

Emmy Bridgwater Emma Frith Bridgwater (10 November 1906 – 13 March 1999),. known as Emmy Bridgwater, was an English artist and poet associated with the Surrealist movement. Based at times in both Birmingham and London, she was a significant member of the Bir ...

and the young

Desmond Morris Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his televisi ...

. Other notable artists represented included CoBrA member William Gear and the sculptor

Gordon Herickx Gordon Herickx (1900–1953) was an English sculptor. Born in Birmingham, one of seven children of gem setter Emile Herickx and his wife Martha. Herickx won a scholarship in 1914 to study under William Bloye at the Birmingham School of Art, comp ...

. Although there was no organisational link, The Birmingham Artists Committee was acknowledged as a catalyst by the artists who founded the Ikon Gallery in 1964.

References

English artist groups and collectives Art museums and galleries in Birmingham, West Midlands Arts organizations established in 1947 {{UK-art-display-stub