ARTISTS IN EAST LONDON
(1960 - 2000)

Michael Archer's essay Oranges and Lemons and Oranges and Bananas published on the following pages marks the launch of our Artists in East London web site. The essay has been commissioned by Acme Studios as part of our one year feasibility study to investigate the potential for a major research project on the history of artists in East London. The principal aim of the study is to highlight the extraordinary richness of the history and to promote its value as a subject for in-depth research and study. Our work will also help to demonstrate the significance of the contribution made by studio providers and individual artists in East London to the contemporary visual arts in the UK and the establishment of London as a world city.

The story has two main threads: firstly how cultural changes in art which in the 60s prompted artists' needs to find big buildings, and secondly how in the 70s a new generation of artists' quest for survival led them to East London. The unfolding of both these journeys saw the formation by artists of two organisations, SPACE and ACME, who played a key role in bringing about the massive influx of artists.

This publication coincides with the Museum of London's major exhibition, Creative Quarters: the art world in London 1700 to 2000 (30 March to 15 July 2001). The exhibition for the first time maps 300 years of the life and work of the artist in London, identifying eight distinct areas that have attracted the capital's artists, and asks how these 'creative quarters' have influenced the wealth of art that has been produced in the city.


The site will be a 'curtain-raiser' for the historical survey to follow. It will provide an introduction to the artists and organisations involved and to the history of the growth and development of their community in East London. The web site is structured around ten significant buildings, iconic places which at different stages artists came to inhabit and develop their art: The Whitechapel Art Gallery, St Katharine Dock, Dilston Grove, Butlers Wharf, Devons Road, Martello Street, Beck Road, Rachel Whiteread's House, Copperfield Road and Hoxton Square.

The site is not intended to be definitive, but rather as a starting point to help uncover other sources of information and to provoke debate.

House, Rachel Whiteread, 1993/94

Michael Archer is a regular contributor to Art Monthly and Artforum and lectures at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford. He is a visiting Research Fellow at Chelsea College of Art & Design. He is author of Art Since 1960 (1997) and Audio Arts (1994) and contributed to Installation Art (1994).

Our study is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England.