YOUNG CONTEMPORARIES
In 1949 and idea was put forward by Carel Weight (10 September 1908-13 August 1997), then teaching at the Royal College of Art (RCA), that the vacant Royal Society of British Artists galleries in Suffolk Street, London could be used to exhibit students' work. Early shows tended to be dominated by the work of the RCA students but eventually students from other art schools began exhibiting there. In the 1960s the Young Contemporaries' exhibitions moved to the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London’s East End, through these shows Pop Art, especially the work of David Hockney (9 July 1937-11 June 2026), first attracted the attention of the public. Much of the administration of the exhibitions was undertaken by the students and among the many artists who first showed with the Young Contemporaries were Pauline Aitken, Frank Auerbach (29 April 1931-11 November 2024), Robyn Denny (3 October 1930-20 May 2014), Leon Kossoff (10 December 1926-4 July 2019), Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith (18 June 1928-11 June 2011 ). Lack of funding and organisational skills meant that sometimes exhibitions failed to happen and 1970 saw the last show for a few years.
In 1974 a group of tutors from some London colleges, including Gillian Ayres (3 February 1930-11 April 2018), Paul Huxley (12 May 1938-) and William Tucker (28 February 1935-), revived the exhibition and a new constitution was drawn up and the exhibition was named New Contemporaries, with its first exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre in 1974. Financial problems beset this new organisation which lasted until 1986 when the catalogue for that year’s show prefaced by Andrew Lambirth, contained an historical foreword entitled 'New Contemporaries Past and Present'. However, the New Contemporaries continues today under the auspices of the Arts Council of Great Britain and patrons include or have included British Telecom, Bloomberg and the Moores family of Liverpool. It shows at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, and tours to four UK regional centres. A new generation of exceptional artists including Monster Chetwynd (born Alalia Maria V Chetwynd 1973-), Rachel Maclean (1987-), Haroon Mirza (1977-), Hardeep Pandhal (1985-), Laure Prouvost (1978-) and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (1977-).
Website: https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk
Northern Young Contemporaries was established in 1965 and held regular exhibitions at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester which lasted until 1993. Similarly Scottish Young Contemporaries was established by Richard Demarco (9 July 1930-) in 1969 and appears to have lasted into the early 1990s latterly under the auspices of the Scottish Arts Council.