Tate Britain celebrates the short but seismic age of New Brutalism

'Untitled (Study for Parallel of Life and Art)'
A new exhibition at Tate Britain casts a spotlight on the visual culture of New Brutalism. Pictured is 'Untitled (Study for Parallel of Life and Art)', by Nigel Henderson and Eduardo Paolozzi, 1952. © Tate
(Image credit: TBC)

Designed in 1949 by Alison and Peter Smithson and opened in 1954, Hunstanton Secondary Modern School was a radical series of Miesian boxes landed in Norfolk; and a key building in the development of British modernism.

The team behind its construction, and the documentation of its construction, included not just the Smithsons but the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who created a large collage for the school; the artist-photographer Nigel Henderson; as well as the pioneering structural engineer Ronald Jenkins of Ove Arup & Partners. The group fused, found common creative cause and continued to collaborate.

The Smithsons designed Jenkins’ office at Arup which featured a Paolozzi collage on the ceiling, a project which saw them become a cross-disciplinary collective dedicated to exploring the problems and potentials of mass media and other manifestations of modernity. The critic Reyner Banham would tag that broader project 'New Brutalism' in 1955.

In the meantime the team, now the nucleus of what was the Independent Group, also helped create the hugely influential ‘Parallel of Life and Art’ exhibition at the ICA in 1953. Tate Britain’s ‘New Brutalist Image 1949-1955’ exhibition, celebrates this short but seismic collaborative blast with previously unseen pictures by Henderson as well as plans and drawings by the Smithsons.

staircase

The staircase at Hunstanton Secondary Modern School. © Tate

(Image credit: TBC)

Ronald Jenkins’ office at Arup

Structural engineer Ronald Jenkins’ office at Arup featured a Paolozzi collage on the ceiling. Photography: Nigel Henderson. © Tate

(Image credit: Nigel Henderson)

'Collage Mural', 1952

'Collage Mural', by Eduardo Paolozzi, 1952. © The Eduardo Paolozzi Foundation

(Image credit: TBC)

‘Plaster Blocks', 1952

‘Plaster Blocks', by Eduardo Paolozzi, 1952. Photography: Nigel Henderson. © Tate

(Image credit: Nigel Henderson)

interior of Henderson’s house

The interior of Henderson’s house in Bow, London. Photography: Nigel Henderson. © Tate

(Image credit: Nigel Henderson)

Henderson's daughter in the family's front room

A portrait of Henderson's daughter in the family's front room, also decorated with designs by Paolozzi. Photography: Nigel Henderson. © Tate

(Image credit: Nigel Henderson)

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