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Year One: Tower Hamlets

10 June – 8 September 2013 | npg.org.uk/creativeconnections Creative Connections is generously supported by the Palley family. Year One: Tower Hamlets Creative Connections is a four-year project connecting young people in with contemporary artists to create new responses to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. The spotlights for the first year of the project was the London borough of Tower Hamlets and portraits and biographies of people who have local connections. GSCE art students from St Paul’s Way Trust School, Bow worked with artist Lucy Steggals to explore the inspirational life stories of eight individuals: David Adjaye, Elizabeth Garret Anderson, Edith Cavell, , Mark Gertler, Isaac Rosenberg, Pankhurst and . Through creative art workshops, they researched their biographies, deconstructed their portraits and re-imagined them. Together they have created new composite identities of the eight. The resulting building block artworks can be used to create endless new and different permutations of people and place. Creative Connections is generously supported by the Palley family. Tower Hamlets

The London borough of Tower Hamlets, often referred to as the ‘East End’, has a distinct and diverse identity that has long attracted radicals, whether social, religious or philanthropic. Bordered on the south by the it was once part of the world’s largest port. It has seen successive waves of immigration including French and Jewish refugees and more recently, people from , all of whom have made the borough their home. Tower Hamlets also has royal history, being the site of the (after which it is named) and has enjoyed recent regeneration in the newly- developed commercial and residential centres of and . Its story reflects and celebrates the rich and varied contributions individuals have made, and are making, to British life and culture. The project story

Tower Hamlet’s People RACHEL WHITEREAD (b.1963) (1882–1960) Sculptor Political activist, writer, artist Rachel Whiteread’s work explores memory, loss, Sylvia Pankhurst was one of the leading figures in space and remembrance and often involves the campaign to establish votes for women. She making casts of everyday objects or structures. took part in demonstrations and violent acts in Whiteread typically uses industrial materials such support of the cause and was arrested eight times as plaster, resin and rubber in her work and the between 1913 and 1914. In prison, she went on result is not the object itself, but the space around to reinforce her protest. it. She has a significant international reputation with major works in collections in the USA and Pankhurst was a leading anti-war campaigner By Herbert Cole Chalk, c.1925 Europe including the Holocaust Memorial in during the First World War. During the 1930s she Given by the sitter’s son, Vienna. She was awarded a CBE in 2006. By Gautier Deblonde was active in the fight against fascism and helped Richard Pankhurst, 1961 Bromide fibre print, 1999 NPG 4244 NPG x126937 Jewish refugees. She championed Ethiopian Creative Connection: Tree of Life, the frieze on independence, and died in the capital, Addis the front of the Gallery, was Rachel Ababa, where she was so highly regarded that the Whiteread’s first permanent public commission in Emperor Haile Selasse ordered a state funeral. the UK. In 1993 she became the first to win the for : a full-sized replica Creative Connection: Sylvia Pankhurst established of the interior of a condemned Victorian terrace a branch of the Women’s Social and Political house that stood at 193 Grove Road, Mile Union (WSPU) at 198 Bow Road. She founded a End. Tower Hamlets Council demolished the work day nursery and toy factory at 45 Norman Road in 1994. Whiteread lives and works in a converted commemorated by a blue plaque and established synagogue in Tower Hamlets. a mother and baby clinic in Road. She lived in Bow from 1912 to 1924. She is Rachel Whiteread; Phil Brown commemorated by Sylvia Pankhurst House in By Bassano By Johnnie Shand Kydd Vintage print, 1927 Bromide fibre print, 1997 Warley Street and a statue in Park. NPG x84425 NPGx87412 EDITH CAVELL (1865–1915) ELIZABETH GARRETT Nurse ANDERSON (1836–1917) Edith Cavell was invited to Brussels in 1907 to Physician become director of a newly-established nurses’ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson overcame opposition to training school. During the German occupation women attending medical school or entering the of Belgium in the First World War, she helped allied medical profession and studied privately, becoming soldiers by providing them with hiding places, false the first woman to sit the Society of Apothecaries’ papers and escape routes and the nursing school exams. She became the first English woman doctor became a base for the Resistance Movement. in 1865. Determined to open the profession to Falling under suspicion, German officials paid women, she founded the first hospital to be staffed By Walery, published by frequent visits to the clinic and Cavell was arrested By Eleanor M. Ross by women and to offer training to women. Sampson Low & Co and sentenced to death. This led to international Watercolour and pencil, Carbon print on card mount, c.1917 Garrett Anderson continued to be a pioneer for published February 1889 anger but despite intense diplomatic activity across NPG 5322 NPG x8446 women’s rights and was the first woman to be Europe and the USA she was shot at dawn on 12 elected to the School Board of London; the first October 1915. A memorial statue of Cavell is woman to obtain a Doctor’s degree at the situated opposite the entrance to the National Sorbonne University in Paris and the first woman Portrait Gallery on St Martin’s Place. mayor in the UK. Creative Connection: Cavell trained and qualified as Creative Connection: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson a staff nurse at the , where was born at 1 , Whitechapel and she is commemorated by a blue plaque. lived near the London Hospital at 8 Philpot Street, Whitechapel.

By Olive Edis and Katharine Legat Unknown photographer Platinotype on photographers card Photogravure, 1915 or after mount, 1910 Given by Ernest E. Leggatt Given by Olive Edis, 1948 NPG D32742 NPG x66 MARK GERTLER (1891–1939) MAHATMA GANDHI (1869–1948) Poet and artist Activist and independence Born in Spitalfields, the son of Jewish immigrants, campaigner Mark Gertler spent his childhood in great poverty. Born in Porbander, India, Gandhi studied law in The Jewish Education Aid Society funded his London. After returning to India he went to South place at the where other to work as a legal advisor. There he led a students included , Paul Nash and campaign against the requirement for people of Isaac Rosenberg. His obsessive love for the artist Indian heritage to carry identity cards. This resulted was not returned and, together in his spending time in prison. Gandhi played a with his anti-war beliefs, this fuelled his creativity. leading part in the formation of the Indian National Suffering from ill health and depression, and Congress. He advocated the use of non-violent By Elliott & Fry disappointed by his career, he committed suicide. Possibly by Dora Carrington Half-plate glass copy Pencil, c.1909-1911 methods of resistance to British rule, such as fasting. negative, 1931 Creative Connection: Gertler was born at 16 Gun NPG 5431 Gandhi adopted a simple way of life and style of NPG x82218 Street, Spitalfields and is commemorated by a blue dress. He was widely respected as a great teacher, plaque at 32 Elder Street, Spitalfields. A coal-hole doing much to improve the plight of India’s poor. cover beneath the plaque bears a representation He was assassinated in Delhi in January 1948 by a of his most famous painting to show the futility of Hindu activist. war, The Merry-Go-Round (1916). Creative Connection: Gandhi came to London in 1931 for a conference on constitutional reform in India. He stayed at , Powis Road, Bow

for three months. A centre for the poor, his decision After Jacob Kramer By Lady Ottoline Morrell to stay was to identify himself with the working class Screenprint, 1932 Vintage snapshot print, 1917 Given by William Elborne, 1937 Purchased with help from the Friends rather than the privileged. There is a blue plaque on NPG D7574 of the National Libraries and the the building to commemorate his visit. Estate of John David Roberts. Dame Helen Gardner Bequest, 2003 By permission of the NPG Ax140527 William Roberts Society. DAVID ADJAYE (b.1966) ISAAC ROSENBERG (1890–1918 Architect Artist Tanzanian-born British architect David Adjaye is Isaac Rosenberg’s parents emigrated from Lithuania one of the UK’s most successful architects. He and arrived in London in 1897. Rosenberg started topped the Power List 2013 of Britain’s most writing poetry when he was fourteen years old, influential black people. His recent work includes encouraged by the librarian at Whitechapel. The artist collaboration ‘The Source’ at Tate Liverpool library later also became the meeting place for his and the Mass Extinction Monitoring Observatory fellow-artists and Mark Gertler who on the Isle of Portland, Dorset.He was selected were part of the Whitechapel Group. As a result of to design Washington DC’s National Museum of friends’ generosity, he was able to afford to attend Self-portrait African American History and Culture, which is the Slade School of Fine Art. Despite being a pacifist, Oil on panel, 1915 planned to open in 2015, and plans for his Hackney By Jonathan Root he enlisted for the First World War in 1915 not out Given by the sitter’s sister, Bromide toned print, 2007 Mrs. Wynick, 1959 Fashion Hub have recently been unveiled. His work NPG x133117 of patriotism, but poverty. He wrote his finest poetry NPG 4129 is influenced by African and contemporary art, as in the trenches in France where he was killed in April well as the local area of his buildings. He was 1918 aged twenty-seven. awarded an OBE in 2007. Creative Connection: A blue plaque on the former Creative Connection: Adjaye’s Idea Store Whitechapel Public Library, 77 Whitechapel High Whitechapel and Idea Store Chrisp Street Street, records that this is where Isaac Rosenberg re-imagine the modern library as a bustling read and wrote poetry as there was nowhere to community centre. study at home. He attended the Baker Street board school in and lived in Cable, Jubilee and Dempsey Streets.

By London Art Studios By Sal Idriss Bromide print mounted on a postcard, C-type print, 2002 c.1915 NPG x125662 NPG P230 (1728–1779) (1859–1940) MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT Circumnavigator Labour leader and pacifist (1759–1797) (1845–1905) The son of a Yorkshire labourer, Captain James Lansbury was the founder and editor of the Daily Writer and feminist Philanthropist; founder of Cook learned how to work on ships on small Herald newspaper, a rallying point for opponents of A political radical and author of A Vindication of Barnardo’s Homes East Coast trading boats. Described as ‘a good the First World War and supporters of the Russian the Rights of Woman (1792), Wollstonecraft is Born and raised in . While waiting in London to mathematician and very expert in his business’, he Revolution. An active supporter of the now regarded as one of the founders of modern travel to China as a missionary, Barnardo enrolled at was chosen to command the Royal Navy ship the movement, he ran for parliament on the single issue British feminism. As a writer she made a powerful the London Hospital to train as a doctor and taught Endeavour in 1768, despite being an officer of a of giving women the right to vote. Lansbury led the case for the liberation and education of women. at a . He later set up his own school, lower rank. Cook is most famous for charting the Labour Party from 1931 to 1935. An ardent Her husband’s startlingly frank Memoirs of Mary which inspired him towards what was to be his life’s coasts of , the east coast of Australia believer in unilateral disarmament, he visited Adolf Wollstonecraft (1798) dominated the public work. He was known as the ‘child’s champion’, and the Pacific coast of North America. Hitler in 1937 to make a plea for peace. perception of her after her death. Their daughter approximately 60,000 girls and boys had benefitted Creative Connection: After moving to London in Creative Connection: Mayor of Poplar and MP for was the author, Mary Shelley, who wrote the novel from his work by the end of his life. 1762, Cook married the daughter of a Bow and , Lansbury’s home at 39 Bow Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus (1818). Creative Connection: Barnardo taught and publican and lived in . Later they moved Road was his political base. He is commemorated in Creative Connection: Wollstonecraft was born in the preached in Stepney and established the first of his to 88 Mile End Road, Bow where he is Poplar by the , Lansbury Gardens and Spitalfields area. Her paternal grandfather was a orphanages, The Stepney Home for Boys, on Stepney commemorated by a blue plaque. Lansbury Lodge. successful Spitalfields silk weaver. Causeway. He is commemorated in the borough by Barnardo Street and Barnardo Gardens, Shadwell, and has a blue plaque on Coborn Street, Bow where he first lodged.

By John Webber By Stepney Causeway Studios Oil on canvas, feigned oval, By Sylvia Gosse Oil on canvas, c.1797 Vintage bromide postcard print, before 1906 November 1776 Oil on canvas, 1939 Bequeathed by Jane, Lady Shelley, 1899 Given by Terence Pepper, 2012 NPG 26 NPG 3775 NPG 1237 NPG x136278 (b.1985) ARCHBISHOP JOHN SENTAMU TRACEY EMIN (b.1963) GILBERT & GEORGE Rap singer, songwriter and DJ (b.1949) Artist Artists Dylan Kwabena Mills has Ghanaian and Nigerian In 2005, Sentamu was appointed Archbishop of York Tracey Emin studied at Maidstone College of Art Artists Gilbert Proesch (b.1943) and George Passmore heritage and grew up in a high-rise estate in Bow. and became ’s first black archbishop. Born in and the Royal College of Art. Her work discloses the (b.1942) have worked together as Gilbert & George Named ‘rascal’ by his teachers, who encouraged a village near Kampala, Uganda, he was intimate details of her life across a range of media since they met in the 1960s when they were both him to develop his musical talent, he began rapping the sixth of thirteen children. Sentamu survived and notable works include Everyone I Have Ever studying at Saint Martin’s School of Art, London. in the UK garage style. Aged nineteen he won the childhood sickness and famine to study law and Slept With 1963–1995 (1995), and My Bed (1998), International exhibitors and winners of the Turner £20,000 Mercury Music Prize for his debut become a barrister and then a High Court Judge. exhibited at the Tate Gallery for the Turner Prize Prize in 1986, they are noted for their performance Boy in Da Corner. His critically-acclaimed follow In 1974, his criticism of Idi Amin’s regime for human shortlist in 1999. Emin represented Britain at the work and large photo-pieces. Solo exhibitions include up work, Tongue N’ Cheek, was awarded gold and rights violations led to his arrest and his departure Venice Biennale in 2007 and was elected a Royal those at the Pompidou Centre, Paris (1981), the platinum discs with sales exceeding 300,000 units. from Uganda to Britain. In England he trained for Academician same year. She was awarded a CBE Guggenheim (1985) and a major retrospective at Creative Connection: Grew up in Bow and attended the priesthood and was ordained in 1979. He was in 2012. Tate Modern (2007). St Paul’s Way Trust School – a partner for the an adviser to the inquiry into the death of Stephen Creative Connection: In 1993 initiated ‘The Shop’ Creative Connection: Gilbert & George have lived and Creative Connections project 2012/3. Lawrence and chairman of the Damilola Taylor with Sarah Lucas on Road, Bethnal worked together on , Spitalfields for Attended, and is now a patron of, Tower Hamlets Investigation and Prosecution Review (2002). Green to market and sell their work. Today over forty years. Summer University. Creative Connection: Bishop of Stepney 1996–2002 Emin lives on Fournier Street, Spitalfields. and currently a Patron of , Whitechapel.

image not image not available for available for copyright By Julian Cottrell copyright By Emma Hardy By Sal Idriss By Dennis Toff reasons Print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag reasons C-type print, 22 August 2006 C-type print, September 2004 Archival inkjet print, 28 June 2007 Bright White paper, 1971 NPG x128793 NPG x127164 NPG x131343 NPG x133161 (b.1937) DAME (1883–1967) (1858–1943) Actress (1851–1936) Prime Minister Social reformer and diarist Windsor came to fame for her role on stage in Fings Social reformer In 1922 Attlee was elected Labour MP for , Author of The Co-operative Movement in Britain Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be (1960) and on film in SAMUEL BARNETT (1844–1913) and in 1935 he became leader of the party. He (1891) and Factory Acts (1901), Beatrice Webb was, Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963), a performance Church of England clergyman and served in the 1940–5 coalition government. Winning with her husband Sidney, a driving force in socialist that won her a BAFTA nomination. She starred in social reformer the 1945 election, Attlee’s government laid the intellectual circles at the beginning of the twentieth several ‘’ films includingCarry on Doctor foundations of the National Health Service and the century and a prominent member of the Fabian (1968) and (1969) and played The Barnetts shared their work in for and nationalised essential industries Society – a socialist organisation. Among the Webbs’ Peggy in the BBC TV series EastEnders for over twenty years. Among their achievements was and utilities and the Bank of England. joint publications are English Local Government (9 the establishment of the Children’s County Holiday nineteen years. Creative Connection: Attlee volunteered as a young volumes, 1906–29) and Soviet Communism: A new Fund. Henrietta went on to establish the Civilization? (1935). Creative Connection: Born at the Whitechapel Garden Trust. She was active in many man at a boys club in Durham Road, Stepney and Hospital and lived in during her women’s organisations and founded the Dame later became Secretary of Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel. Creative Connection: Published Dock Life in the early years. Henrietta Barnett School. Elected Mayor of Stepney in 1919 he went on and conducted an enquiry into to be Labour MP for Limehouse for twenty-eight the exploitation of workers in the tailoring trade in Creative Connection: Samuel was Vicar of St Jude’s years. He is commemorated locally by Attlee House, Stepney. Commemorated locally by Beatrice Webb Parish Whitechapel. They founded the Whitechapel Commercial Street and a statue outside Limehouse House, Chisenhale Street. Art Gallery and Library and Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel: Library, Commercial Road. the first of the University Settlements established to encourage aspiring leaders and statesmen to respond to the needs of the poor by living and working with them. Samuel is commemorated in the borough by Samuel Barnett Junior image not School, Commercial Street. By George Bernard Shaw, copy available for by Emery Walker Ltd By Elliott & Fry By Yousuf Karsh Photogravure, c.1900 copyright By Michael Ward Bromide print, c. 1905 Bromide print, 1944 Given by John Parker on behalf of reasons Bromide print, 22 August 1962 Given by Terence Pepper, 1976 Given by Yousuf Karsh, 1984 the Trustees of Beatrice Webb House, 1987 NPG x88647 NPG x696 NPG P241 NPG x12675 Young People and the Artist’s response DAVID BOMBERG (1890–1957) SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, Painter 1ST BT (1786–1845) Bomberg served with the Royal Engineers in France Philanthropist from 1915. His pre-War paintings Mud-Bath and A member of the Church of England, Buxton also The Hold (Tate Gallery) are among the best known attended Quaker meetings and became involved in of his works and are recognised as masterpieces the social reform movement. He helped raise money of the Vorticist movement. His later works are for the London weavers who were forced into poverty landscapes and portraits in a freely expressive style, by new factories. Buxton provided financial support which were often painted on his travels in Europe for prison reform and as an MP worked for improved and the Near East. prison conditions and the abolition of slavery. He also Creative Connection: Son of polish, Jewish opposed capital punishment and campaigned for immigrants, Bomberg lived in Whitechapel and its abolition. exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery as part Creative Connection: Buxton lived and worked at of the Whitechapel Group along with Mark Gertler the Old Truman Brewery in , Whitechapel and Isaac Rosenberg. where a blue plaque commemorates him. Thomas Buxton Infant and Junior Schools, stand on Buxton Street Shoreditch.

By David Garshen Bomberg By James Thomson, after Abraham Wivell Oil on millboard, c. 1937 Stipple engraving, (1821) NPG 5345a NPG D20845

The display

Private View

Participants: Creative Connections

Abdul Khaleda Noorani Lucy Steggals says of her work: Afsana Mahfuzur Noori It centres on engaging in conversation with people and place. Often drawing on my fascination with Afzal Mahmuda Rajib collections and archives public, private and imagined. Aleemah Maisha Rakib Constructing new and/or personal narratives through Aneesha Majoice Ruhana a process of gathering, collecting, copying, editing, re- arranging, re-mixing and re-presenting that which Anika Masuma Rushnia is already there. Azhar Minar Shafia lucysteggals.co.uk Fabiha Misbaur Shah Fahim Mohima Shahinur Forida Moniqua Shakil Imran Moriom Sourish Jamila Nabila Sultana Javed Nazifa Syeda Jessica Nazira Tahmin Julekha Nazmul Zaman Kamran Nika Zobeda Copyright acknowledgements Collection artworks that have been used in the display and the project. David Adjaye by Jonathan Root. NPG x133117 © Jonathan Root David Adjaye by Sal Idriss. NPG x125662 © Sal Idriss Elizabeth Garrett Anderson by Walery. NPG x8446 © National Portrait Gallery, London Elizabeth Garrett Anderson by Olive Edis and Katharine Legat. NPG x66 © National Portrait Gallery, London Edith Cavell by Eleanor M. Ross. NPG 5322 © National Portrait Gallery, London Edith Cavell by an unknown photographer. NPG D32742 © National Portrait Gallery, London Mahatma Gandhi by Elliott & Fry. NPG x82218 © National Portrait Gallery Mahatma Gandhi after Jacob Kramer NPG D7574 © Estate of John David Roberts. By permission of the William Roberts Society. Mark Gertler possibly by Dora Carrington. NPG 5431 © National Portrait Gallery, London Mark Gertler by Lady Ottoline Morrell. NPG Ax140527© National Portrait Gallery, London Sylvia Pankhurst by Herbert Cole. NPG 4244 © National Portrait Gallery, London Sylvia Pankhurst by Bassano. NPG x84425 © National Portrait Gallery, London Isaac Rosenberg by Isaac Rosenberg. NPG 4129 © National Portrait Gallery, London Isaac Rosenberg by London Art Studios. NPG P230 © National Portrait Gallery, London Rachel Whiteread by Gautier Deblonde. NPG x126937 © Gautier Deblonde Rachel Whiteread by Johnnie Shand Kydd. NPG x87412 © Johnnie Shand Kydd

Photographs © National Portrait Gallery, London, 2013. npg.org.uk/creativeconnections