WHITECHAPEL ART GALLERY
Whitechapel Art Gallery, originally the East End Gallery, in Whitechapel High Street, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was built 1897-1899 to an Arts and Crafts style by architect Charles Harrison Townsend (13 May 1851-26 December 1928) and opened in 1901. Its early exhibitions included the works of Frida Kahlo (6 July 1907-13 July 1954), Jackson Pollock (28 January 1912–11 August 1956), Mark Rothko (25 September 1903–25 February 1970), and Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881–8 April 1973) whose ‘Guernica’ was displayed in 1939 on its only visit to the British Isles. Some of Britain’s most important contemporary artists have held solo exhibitions at the Gallery including Peter Doig (17 April 1959-), Ian McKeever (30 November 1946-), Lucian Freud and in 1970 David Hockney (9 July 1937-11 June 2026) held his first retrospective show at the Whitechapel. In over a century of existence, there have been only six gallery Directors, these include Bryan Robertson (1 April 1925-18 November 2002 ) 1952–1968 and Sir Nicholas Serota (27 April 1946-) 1976–1988, who went on to become the Director of the Tate Gallery. Suffolk artists who exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery include David Carr, Geoffrey Cyril Petts Clarke, John Dargan, Ray Exworth, Elsie Evelyn Few, David Laing, Charles Messent, Claude Rogers, Isaac Rosenberg, Charles Paget Wade and Peter Wylie. Its historic building houses nine exhibition spaces, a fully equipped auditorium, a variety of study and studio spaces, as well as a specialist bookshop and acclaimed restaurant.
Website: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org