This richly illustrated publication accompanies a major exhibition organised by Kunstmuseum Den Haag in collaboration with Tate, exploring the School of London — a group of postwar artists who redefined figurative painting in Britain. Featuring more than 70 works by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Paula Rego, Frank Auerbach, and their contemporaries, the book traces how these painters captured the human condition in an era of social and cultural upheaval. While Paris and New York led the charge in abstraction, London fostered a quieter yet profound revolution centered on the human body and psyche. Through essays and artworks, the catalogue reveals how these artists grappled with shifting notions of identity, intimacy, and power, offering a compelling perspective on 20th-century art and reaffirming London’s role as a crucible of postwar creativity.

Exhibition
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
February 14 through June 7, 2026

About the Author

Gregory Salter, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham, (specialising in postwar British art). Sanjukta Sunderason, assistant professor University of Amsterdam, (specialising in Modernism and activist art). Elena Crippa, former curator Tate and Thijs de Raedt, curator at Kunstmuseum The Hague.