Feature: Exhibition - Pure Gold: 50 Years of the FBA at Mall Galleries until February 19th

Published: 11 February, 2011
by JOHN EVANS

A EXCELLENT mix of contemporary gems alongside historical works by Augustus John, Walter Sickert, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent and Sir John Lavery feature in a double birthday celebration. 

Pure Gold, marking the Federation of British Artists’ 50 years, coincides with the Mall Galleries’ own 40th birthday this month, and highlights the emphasis on the figurative and representational.

Show curator Anthony J Lester explains the birth of several of the bodies now under the FBA umbrella as a reaction to the Royal Academy. The constructive side, he says, has been “some artists uniting to establish their own worthy organisations”, from as early as 1823 in the case of the Royal Society of British Artists.

Seven others are exhibiting here and the show is a glimpse into the ups and downs of their history. Included are the Royal Societies of Portrait Painters, and of Marine Artists, the Royal Institutes of Painters in Water Colours, of Oil Painters, New English Art Club, the Pastel Society, and Society of Wildlife Artists. 

Together, Lester says, they represent 973 years of artistic heritage.

Many of the 140 or so works are for sale, with prices from the low hundreds to “six-figures”.

• Pure Gold: 50 Years of the FBA, Mall Galleries, SW1, until February 19. Admission free. www.mallgalleries.org.uk