The London Art Schools

Since 1960, progressive forces within art education have stoked, and continued to fire, new impulses in the field of artistic production. As society at large embraced youth and popular culture, art school students with international aspirations exploded class barriers, fused fashion with Pop and insisted that art was integral to social change.

These possibilities were unthinkable without shifts in priorities. Replacing a craft-based curriculum, the teaching in art schools across Britain, and notably in London, began to widen the range of artistic exploration. A new generation emerged, whose techniques, perspectives, and arguments had their origins in these innovations and whose most striking forms of expression maintain their influence on the most adventurous artists in the new millennium.

This history of innovation has been largely unwritten. Here, scholars in the field explore key aspects of this dynamic period such as changes in architecture, exhibition display, and approaches to art history.

With 100 illustrations showing both the art school in action and the works that were made under its pull, this survey also provides key information for the London Art Schools - Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon, Slade, Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths and Central St Martins - allowing an insightful view into this transformative era.