Seven and Five Society

The Seven and Five Society was an art group of seven painters and five sculptors created in 1919 and based in London.

The group was originally intended to encompass traditional, conservative artistic sensibilities. The first exhibition catalogue said, "[we] feel that there has of late been too much pioneering along too many lines in altogether too much of a hurry." Abstract artist Ben Nicholson joined in 1924, followed by others such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and changed the society into a modernistic one and expelled the non-modernist artists. In 1935, the group was renamed the Seven and Five Abstract Group. At the Zwemmer Gallery in Charing Cross Road, London they staged the first exhibition of entirely abstract works in Britain.^[1]

Exhibitions

A list of the exhibitions held by the society:^[2]

• 12 Apr-1 May 1920 Walkers Galleries
• 1-30 Jun 1921 Gieves Gallery
• 20 Nov-9 Dec 1922 Walkers Galleries
• 26 Nov-22 Dec 1923 Patersons
• 4-20 Dec 1924 Patersons
• 2-23 Jan 1926 The Beaux Arts Gallery
• 4-22 Jan 1927 The Beaux Arts Gallery
• 14 Feb-6 Mar 1928 The Beaux Arts Gallery
• 7-28 Mar 1929 Arthur Tooth and Sons
• Jan 1931 Leicester Galleries
• Feb 1932 Leicester Galleries
• Feb 1933 Leicester Galleries
• Mar 1934 Leicester Galleries
• 2-22 Oct 1935 Zwemmer Gallery

See also

• Jessica Dismorr
• Claude Flight
• Frances Hodgkins
• Sidney Hunt
• David Jones
• Len Lye
• Henry Moore
• Cedric Morris
• John Piper
• Cecil Stephenson
• Christopher Wood

References

1. "Seven and Five Society", Tate
2. "Business papers of the 7 & 5 Society". archiveshub.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2016.

Further Reading

• M. Glazebrook, introduction, The Seven and Five Society, 1920–35 [exh. cat., Parkin Gallery, London, 9 January – 10 February 1980 and regional tour, 1979–80]
• Harrison, Charles (1994). English art and modernism : 1900-1939; with an new introd. (2. ed. ed.). New Haven [u.a.]: Yale Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0300059861.
• Rosenthal, ed. by Alan Bowness ; with an introd. essay by T.G. (1973). Ivon Hitchens. London: L. Humphries. ISBN 978-0853313540.
• Lewison, Jeremy (1993). Ben Nicholson (Repr. with corrections. ed.). London: Tate Gallery. ISBN 978-1854371300.
• Causey, Andrew. "Seven & Five Society (act. 1919–1935)". Oxford DNB. Retrieved 13 September 2016.Subscription needed.