Overview

Founded in 1915, Ben Uri houses the world’s largest and most distinguished collection by artists of European Jewish descent. Originally formed as a society to support immigrant Jewish artists from central Eastern Europe, who had settled in London’s East End, it has amassed a large and varied collection, primarily spanning the late-19th century to the present day. The museum now hosts an exciting temporary exhibition programme of 19th-20th century and contemporary art.

Permanent Collection

The permanent collection contains over 1,200 works, representing major avant-garde movements and encompassing a broad range of 20th-century modern British artistic groups. As a whole, the collection draws attention to the significant impact Jewish artists have had on the various modernist movements in British and European art.

The main body of the collection consists of works by Jewish émigré artists who were uprooted from their European home countries in two distinct waves of emigration. As many were forced to travel from country to country before eventually taking refuge in Britain or further afield, they experienced and assimilated a range of artistic styles and movements. Those that settled here brought a new vibrancy and ‘exoticism’ to British Modernism, contributing to the often distinctive eclecticism of British 20th-century art.

Art Funded Works

Frank Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II, 2004, depicts the familiar urban scene below his studio window in London’s Camden Town. Auerbach continues to return to this subject time and again, capturing it at different times of day and in different seasons. The thickly layered impasto paint and bold colours convey a sense of the heat of the summer’s morning to the viewer.

Georg Grosz’s Interrogation is one of only three known fully-executed watercolours of this subject painted between 1936 and 1939. It depicts the horrific scene of a Communist being tortured by Nazi soldiers. Grosz’s free and expressive use of line accentuates the savage emotions depicted in the work.

Visitor information

Situated on Boundary Road, off Abbey Road in St John’s Wood, the gallery is surrounded by pleasant cafés and restaurants where visitors can enjoy refreshments at their leisure. The gallery’s intimate character means the staff are always happy to answer queries or listen to feedback from visitors.