100 for 100: Ben Uri Past Present & Future

Christie’s South Kensington, 21 May – 9 June 2016

Founded 100 years ago in London's East End Jewish quarter, Ben Uri is now located in a small gallery in Boundary Road, NW8 and houses a 1300-piece collection largely hidden from view.

100 for 100 provides a rare opportunity to enjoy spectacular works from the Ben Uri collection at our South Kensington saleroom. Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Jacob Epstein, Mark Gertler and Leon Kossoff are showcased alongside international contemporaries including Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine and Georg Grosz.

The exhibition also includes lesser-known but no less historically important artists, whose stories help trace complex narratives of war, forced journeys, migration and loss. The final room features contemporary artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds, accompanied by newly-uncovered archival material illustrating Ben Uri’s colourful history and wide cultural programming as well as the far-reaching impact of émigré artists on 20th century British art and design. These spectacular highlights secure Ben Uri’s future as a museum of identity and migration.

Ben Uri Logo


Exhibition highlights

  • Lazar Berson (1882–1954)

    Circular Design for Ben Uri Arts Society, c. 1915
    © The Estate of the Artist

  • David Bomberg (1890–1957)

    Ghetto Theatre, 1920
    © The Estate of David Bomberg/ Ben Uri Collection

  • Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943)

    La Soubrette, 1933

  • Eva Frankfurther (1930–1959)

    West Indian Waitresses, 1955
    © The Estate of Eva Frankfurther

  • Behjat Omer Abdulla (b.1996)

    Zrng, 2010
    © The Artist and Counterpoints Arts


Exhibition information

100 for 100: Ben Uri Past Present and Future

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD

  • Viewing

    21 May – 9 June 2016

    Monday: 9am – 7.30pm
    Tuesday – Friday: 9am – 5pm
    Saturday – Sunday: 11am – 5pm
    Closed Bank Holiday 28 – 30 May


Learning & lectures

'Ben Uri: The Beginning'

  • About

    This talk stems from research into Ben Uri's archive, with much material recently translated from the Yiddish, and focuses on the founding of the art society in 1915, and its development over the first decade or so. It sets out the context of Jewish London at this time and introduces several protagonists of the society, including the colourful figures of Lazar Berson and Moyshe Oved, to help explore why art was so important to these East End immigrants.

  • Speaker

    Dr Lily Ford
    Cultural Engagement Fellow
    Birkbeck, University of London

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    26 May, 1pm-2pm

How Many Refugees Are There in This Picture?

  • About

    David Herman, the son of refugee artists Josef Herman (1911-2000), will be talking about Herman's painting, "Refugees". At first glance the painting seems very straightforward. A family of refugees are fleeing for their lives. But is the painting as straightforward as it seems or is there a more complicated story behind the painting?

  • Speaker

    David Herman

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG2

  • Date & Time

    27 May, 1pm-2pm

Diaspora of Displacement

  • About

    Dr Les Morgan, UK-born of Anglo-Indian parentage, exhibited in Black Art shows in the 1980s before moving to Australia in 1989. His art practice and writing concerns race, diaspora, migration cultural hybridity and whiteness. Currently in the UK with a residency at ACME Studios, Les is visiting third generation artists of migrant backgrounds and new migrant artists, to explore where the thinking and visual representation concerning race, cultural difference and identity is currently - what has shifted and what remains unresolved.

  • Speaker

    Dr Les Morgan

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    31 May, 1pm-2pm

The Whitechapel Boys

  • About

    This talk explores the Whitechapel Boys including the artists David Bomberg, Mark Gertler and Isaac Rosenberg, and by association, Jacob Epstein, Jacob Kramer and Bernard Meninsky, as well as the Whitechapel writers (subjects of two of the works) John Rodker and Josef Leftwich, and the only ‘Whitechapel Girl’, Clare Winsten.

  • Speaker

    Sarah MacDougall, Head of Collections

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG1,2

  • Date & Time

    1 June, 1pm-2pm

Learning with Ben Uri: An overview of Ben Uri’s education programme and resources

  • About

    Alix Smith, Learning Manager at Ben Uri discusses the current learning programme at Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, including an exploration of its schools resources created in partnership with the London Grid for Learning and the National Education Network.

  • Speaker

    Alix Smith, Learning Manager, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    2 June, 1pm-2pm

Art and Wellbeing at Ben Uri

  • About

    Emma Hollamby, Learning Officer for Wellbeing at Ben Uri discusses the Gallery’s current wellbeing programme, centring on three core projects. This talk will also address the scientific links between art and wellness whilst placing the Gallery’s work in the context of a wider, burgeoning interest in the importance of the Arts to wellbeing.

  • Speaker

    Emma Hollamby, Wellbeing Officer, Ben Uri Gallery

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    3 June, 1pm-2pm

Maybe: Memory, the Body and Migration
A Conversation with Counterpoints Arts and Natasha Davis

  • About

    Counterpoints Arts will be in conversation with the Ben Uri collection currently on display at Christie’s South Kensington, and with artist, Natasha Davis, who repeatedly pushes the boundaries of what it means to tell a personal migration story. For Davis, memory, the body and migration are intrinsically linked - captured in her sometimes wild, visceral and deeply moving performances. The haunting presence of artists like Chana Kowalska and Eva Frankfurther – from the Ben Uri collection – will at times interrupt this conversation about exile, displacement and the stubborn precariousness of creative and social biography. Moderated by Áine O'Brien, Co-Director, Counterpoints Arts. No booking necessary.

    Counterpoints Arts is a creative hub producing projects by and about refugees and migrants.

  • Speaker

    Counterpoints Arts and Natasha Davis

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    4 June, 1pm-2pm

Dr Rachel Garfield - Jewish and Other Identities in the work of Rachel Garfield

  • About

    Rachel Garfield has been making work exploring Jewish identity since the mid 1990s. Her video art asks questions about assumptions of identity and about racism. This talk will address the main themes in her artwork, the background of the ideas and work, her influences and methodologies.

    Rachel Garfield is an artist and Associate Professor at the University of Reading and Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University.

  • Speaker

    Dr Rachel Garfield

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG2

  • Date & Time

    5 June, 1pm-2pm

'A price above rubies' - a century of women artists at Ben Uri

  • About

    The tour will highlight women artists from successive waves of migration, from 'Whitechapel girl' Clare Winsten; Russian-born Sonia Delaunay of the School of Paris; Dorothy Bohm and Eva Frankfurther - both displaced through the rise of Nazism - to contemporary women such as Zory Shahrokhi, a recent migrant in the face of global upheaval.

  • Speaker

    Rachel Dickson, Head of Curatorial Services, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG1,2,3

  • Date & Time

    6 June, 1pm-2pm

Professional Photography in an Art Gallery Setting: the Ben Uri Experience'

  • About

    Ben Uri archivist Jim Ranahan considers how photography supports the work of art institutions. The varied uses of photography in a pre-digital age will be discussed, as will the types of photographers involved. Using examples from the archive and reflecting its particular history, the degree to which Ben Uri has conformed to art gallery 'photographic norms' will be considered.

  • Speaker

    Jim Ranahan

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG2

  • Date & Time

    7 June, 3pm-4pm

'Introducing Moshe Oved'

  • About

    Moshe Oved was famous as a dealer in antique jewellery and the proprietor of 'Cameo Corner'. But he was also an accomplished jeweller and sculptor, a noted Yiddish poet, a wonderful raconteur and memoirist, and one of the key figures in Ben Uri's early history. His own pieces, and those of his wife Sah Oved, are now highly prized.

  • Speaker

    John Benjamin: Jewellery historian and Antiques Roadshow expert who worked in 'Cameo Corner' in the 1970s
    David Mazower: Writer on Yiddish Culture

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    Lower Gallery

  • Date & Time

    8 June, 1pm-2pm

Forming the future from the past

  • About

    David Glasser, CEO and Chair of ben uri Gallery and museum will provide a brief history of the musuem's first 100 years followed by an explanation of the strategy launched in 2001 engaging ‎London as a whole. He will then focus on the new engagement model for museums in this new century ahead sharing voices and space with other minority communities exploring issues of identity and migration through art.

  • Speaker

    David Glasser, CEO and Chair Ben Uri Gallery

  • Location

    Christie’s South Kensington
    85 Old Brompton Road
    London SW7 3LD
    FG2

  • Date & Time

    9 June, 1pm-2pm

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