B
en Uri is delighted to be working in
partnership with the German Embassy
London on this important exhibition
“Finchleystraße”– as bus conductors
used to call out at the local Finchley Road stop –
recognising the influx of German-speaking émigrés
to North London during the Nazi era and their
profound enrichment of our own history and culture.
Part of our wide exhibition programme exploring the
contribution of refugee and migrant artists to the UK,
it examines their ‘forced journeys’ and artistic legacies
in this country.
Ben Uri’s own history is one of migration: formed
in London’s East End in 1915 by Jewish Eastern-
european émigré artisans working outside the cultural
mainstream. Proudly reflecting its roots and cultural
heritage, being named in the spirit of the Bezalel School
of Art in Jerusalem founded in 1906, Ben Uri formed
a collection of work by artists of British and European
Jewish descent.
Since 2000, the remit has widened to include works
by émigré artists from a wide range of cultural, religious
and geographical backgrounds and today the collection
numbers more than 1,300 works by over 400 artists:
67% émigrés, 27% women, and 33% contemporary.
Interpreted within the wider contexts of art history,
politics and society, both the collection as a whole and
this exhibition in particular show how migrant artists
continually express feelings about removal from the
homeland and resettlement in a new country. These
artists repaid their debts of safe haven to Great Britain
by contributing much to their new home country’s
visual arts and cultural mosaic and making an indelible
mark, whether by practice, teaching or scholarship on
20th century British art.
I would like to thank Tania Freiin von Uslar-
Gleichen, Charlotte Schwarzer and Alexandra
Wolfelsberger-Essig from the Germany Embassy
London and Ben Uri curators Sarah MacDougall
and Rachel Dickson, supported by Dessi Petrova and
Rebecca Mitchell, our Learning Manager Alix Smith,
and photographer Justin Piperger and designer Alan
Slingsby, for realising this important exhibition.
David J Glasser
Chairman, Ben Uri Galley and Museum
Finchleystraße 7