The Ben Uri Gallery & Museum is a registered museum and charity based at 108a Boundary Road, off
Abbey Road
''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although '' Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly ...
in
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
, London, England.
It features the work and lives of émigré artists in London,
and describes itself as "The Art Museum for Everyone".
Its website includes the museum's collection, reflecting the Jewish and immigrant contribution to British art since 1900, including an itemised exhibition list from 1925 onwards, a digitised archive and catalogue of its art reference library. It also includes online exhibitions, podcasts and audio material.
History
The Ben Uri Art Society was founded in the
East End of London in 1915 by the Russian emigre artist
Lazar Berson
Lazar may refer to:
* Lazar (name), any of various persons with this name
* Lazar BVT, Serbian mine resistant, ambush-protected, armoured vehicle
* Lazar 2, Serbian armored vehicle
* Lazar 3, Serbian armored van
* Lazăr, a tributary of the river J ...
to provide an art venue for Jewish immigrant craftsmen and artists then unable to gain access to mainstream artistic societies, due to traditional obstacles faced by all migrant minorities. Ben Uri was founded along the lines of the
Bezalel School
The Bezalel school was an art movement in Palestine in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. Named for the Bezalel Art School, predecessor of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, it has been described as "a fusion of oriental art and ...
, created nine years earlier in 1906 in Jerusalem. It was named after
Bezalel Ben Uri, the craftsman who designed and built the Ark of the Covenant.
From 1926 to 1933, the president of the Ben Uri Art Society was the Polish painter
Leopold Pilichowski
Leopold Pilichowski (March 23, 1869 – July 28, 1933) was a Polish realist painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, active during the final years of the foreign partitions of Poland. He was known for his commitment to social commentary ...
(1869–1934).
After electing a new board of trustees in October 2000, led by David Glasser, the charity was relaunched in 2001 with a new name, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, and has rented its in
St. John's Wood gallery since June 2002.
Permanent collection
Its permanent collection has about 1,300 artworks, and is seeking a site in central London to display them, as its present location is only large enough for temporary exhibitions including the series on the Whitechapel Boys; ''Cross Purposes'', tracing the use of the Crucifixion motif during the 20th century and recent contemporary art; in June 2012 ''
Dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
'', re-discovering an artist from Berlin in the Weimar 1920s and 30s; followed in October by a survey of 40 years work by the American artist
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
.
Recent exhibitions
In June 2017, ''Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain'' opened.
Further reading
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Uri Gallery and Museum
1915 establishments in England
Art museums established in 1915
Art museums and galleries in London
Jewish museums in the United Kingdom
Museums in the City of Westminster