Unit One was a British grouping of
Modernist artists founded by
Paul Nash. The group included painters, sculptors and architects, and was active from 1933 to 1935. It held one exhibition, which began at the
Mayor Gallery in
Cork Street,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and then went on an extended tour, closing in Belfast in 1935. The artists planned the group at meetings held at the
Mayor Gallery; Paul Nash announced its creation in a letter to ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' on 12 June 1933.
[ A book by ]Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...
, ''Unit One: the modern movement in English painting, sculpture, and architecture'',[ was published at the time of the exhibition. Despite its brief period of activity, the group is regarded as influential in establishing the pre-eminence of London as a centre of modernist and abstract art and architecture in the mid-1930s.
]
Members
The artists of the group were: the architects Wells Coates and Colin Lucas; the painters John Armstrong, John Bigge, Edward Burra, Frances Hodgkins, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth; and the sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Frances Hodgkins soon left the group and was replaced by Tristram Hillier.
References
British artist groups and collectives
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