NORWICH TWENTY GROUP
The Norwich Twenty Group is a group of artists in Norfolk. Stimulated by contemporary art movements, the original group of fourteen artists, met in November 1944, they intended to raise standards of local professional art to something worthy of the artistic history of Norfolk, by mutual criticism and appraisal of work. On 8 January 1945, they named the Group 'The Norwich Twenty Group' and a constitution was signed. The Group continues to flourish with new members. The artists have included Bernard Reynolds, Edward Barker (1918-1983), Leslie Davenport (1905–1973), Michael James Andrews (1928-1995), Mary Newcomb, Sydney Ernest Hamilton Wood (1918-1988), Jeffery Camp, Frank Pond and Cavendish Morton. Since 1945 and until the end of 2013, some 150 art shows have been organised. Shows have taken place in 97 venues in Norwich, 35 in East Anglia, 11 outside East Anglia and 7 in Europe. Many of the artists trained at the Norwich School of Art, now Norwich University of the Arts (NUA), the Royal College of Art, Slade School of Fine Art, and other well-known art schools. Many have travelled widely, studying the arts of other cultures, and have exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. In 2015 members include eighty-eight artists, with three life members and four honorary members. Several NUA graduates are invited to join the group every year, for one year, under the Licentiate Scheme. Meeting challenges in today’s contemporary art, Norwich Twenty Group now encompasses artists working in all media from paint, sculpture, installations and digital, ever seeking to nurture new members and forms of art. From mid-2015 the chairman was Martin Richard Laurance. Other Suffolk artist members included Peter Baldwin, Martin Howard Battye, Ronald Courteney, Brian Hagger, David Holgate, Pat Jourdan, Hazel Mary Spencer and Mary Spicer.
Founder members
First eight members who attended the inaugural meeting on 13 November 1944
•Walter Thomas Watling (1885–1956)
•Maidie Buckingham (1901–1988)
•Henley Graham Curl (1910–1989)
•Margaret Fitzsimmons-Hall
•Tom Griffiths (1901–1990)
•Aileen Margaret Law (1901-2000)
•Wilfred S. Pettitt (1904–1978)
•Bernard Reynolds (1915–1997)
Next admissions in 1944/45
•Edward Barker (1918–1983)
•Leslie Davenport (1905–1973)
•Leslie Moore (1913–1976)
•John Trudgill (1916–1986)
•Jim Starling (1905–1996)
•James Fletcher-Watson (1913–2004)