London Calling is just about perfection and should not be missed. —Patricia Zohn, The Huffington Post
Working in postwar Britain, the artists of the "School of London" rejected contemporary art’s preoccupation with abstraction and conceptualism in favor of the human figure and everyday landscape.
Drawn primarily from the Tate in London, this exhibition highlights the work of six of the leading artists who revolutionized and reinvigorated figurative painting in the later 20th century: Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, and R.B. Kitaj.
The presentation of this exhibition is a collaboration between Tate and the J. Paul Getty Museum. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
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Blog
Publication
Exhibition Catalogue: London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, and Kitaj
by Elena Crippa and Catherine Lampert
Purchase this and other publications in the Getty Museum Store
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Join Getty Director Timothy Potts and other experts as they explore how the "School of London" forged a new path when abstraction dominated the art world.
Pick up a multimedia player free of charge in the Museum Entrance Hall or use your own smartphone on our free GettyLink Wi-Fi.
In the news
The Wall Street Journal
“British Mavericks who Scorned Abstract Art"
Well before Brexit, some Britons liked going their own way. When abstract expressionism and minimalist art was all the rage in England and the U.S., six British artists painted with a different stroke.
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Los Angeles Times
“’London Calling’ at the Getty and the Tension Between Abstract and Figurative Painting”
Art critic Christopher Knight questions the cohesiveness of a “School of London.
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The Huffington Post
“CultureZohn: London Calling At The Getty”
Just in time to wake you from midsummer somnolence comes ‘London Calling,’ a tightly-focused exhibition of six post-WWII, mostly London-based artists at the Getty.
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Jewish Journal
“Wrestling with Angels (and Demons) at the Getty Museum”
Edmon Rodman explores the Jewish connection among Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, and R.B. Kitaj.
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