This Is Tomorrow

"This Is Tomorrow" was a seminal art exhibition in August 1956 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, facilitated by curator Bryan Robertson. The core of the exhibition was the ICA Independent Group.

History

"This is Tomorrow" was conceived by architectural critic Theo Crosby,who was the editor of Architectural Design magazine, and a member of the ICA. Theo Crosby had attended a congress in Paris in 1954 on the drawing together of fine and applied arts, and was later approached about a similar concept to "This Is Tomorrow" by representatives of Groupe Espace in London.

The "This Is Tomorrow" exhibition included artists, architects, musicians and graphic designers working together in 12 teams—an example of multi-disciplinary collaboration that was still unusual. Each group took as their starting point the human senses and the theme of habitation.

The exhibition's most remembered exhibit was the room by Richard Hamilton, John Voelcker and John McHale, with collaboration from Magda and Frank Cordell. It included the Op Art dazzle panels [ A photo of the Dazzle Panels produced by John McHale is provided on page 139 of The Independent Group by Robbins, and a description is provided in Warholstars [http://www.warholstars.org/articles/johnmchale/richardhamilton.html] ] , collage Space modules, and "pop art" readymade of a Marilyn Monroe poster, the Van Gogh Sunflowers poster, a film advertising billboard of the Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot, a Jukebox, the strawberry perfumed carpet, an endless reel of film depicting the Royal Navy Fleet at sea, large Guinness beer bottles, a Marlon Brando poster image and a 'CinemaScope' collage mural design, and the design of the Pop art collage poster that were all provided by John McHale. [ A good deal of the visual material was provided by John McHale when he returned in late May from his academic year-long fellowship at Yale page 139, David Robbins, Aesthetics of Plenty, MIT Press, ISBN0-262-18139-8 ]

Frank Cordell assisted McHale with accessing the film posters such as Julius Caesar (1953 film) for the collage murals, the Forbidden Planet items, the juke box, and installing the film projector, and installing the Duchamp rotor discs given to McHale by Marcel Duchamp in New York. [ Projectors , gramophone motors for moving the Duchamp rotoreliefs, film posters,and probably the juke box,were supplied by Frank Cordell, Robbins page 139 ] Frank Cordell also installed the electronic amplifier and microphone enabling the ambient sounds from audience cybernetic feedback. The Senses panel with arrows featuring Tito was a joint collaboration between Hamilton and McHale, and the version [http://www.thisistomorrow2.com/images/cat_1956/cat_web/pages/029TT-1956.htm] reproduced in the catalogue was slightly different in wording to alter the optical perception of viewers. Hamilton later produced a third version depicting the Senses panel in an interior collage depicting the TIT, but he changed the face to Pierre Mendes France, and changed the Guinness beer bottles and altered other visual details in the mural. McHale and Hamilton collaborated on the Spectrum diagram [http://www.thisistomorrow2.com/images/cat_1956/cat_web/pages/025TT-1956.htm] reproduced in the exhibition catalogue, and McHale later produced a modified version of this in his Man Plus section in his book on the Future of the Future.

The exhibition catalogue featured essays by Reyner Banham and Lawrence Alloway. J. McHale wrote the text for the page Are they Cultured? [http://www.thisistomorrow2.com/images/cat_1956/cat_web/pages/029TT-1956.htm] and it was intended to be featured with the McHale designed collage [http://www.thisistomorrow2.com/images/cat_1956/cat_web/pages/033TT-1956.htm] that got mispaginated in the catalogue. The Pop art poster Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? was jointly submitted by R. Hamilton, J. McHale and John Voelcker, for Group 2, the original design [ Jeremy Hunt states in his article (Just what is it that makes today's artists, so rich, so successful) in 'This Is Tomorrow 1956-2006' that the collage was based on a design by John McHale ] [ [http://www.warholstars.org/articles/johnmchale/richardhamilton.html] ] and all the iconic material was provided by McHale [ According to Magda Cordell much of the material in that collage came from John McHale's files, page 190 Robbins. Also see Warholstars interview with McHale Jr. about the design and content of the collage ] for the collage poster, and Hamilton with the assistance of his wife Terry and Magda Cordell did the final mechanical cut out and paste up.

Colin St John Wilson designed the exhibition guide. The graphic designer Edward Wright(1912-88), who taught typography at the Central School of Art from 1950 to 1955 and then the Royal School of Art, designed the catalogue for This Is Tomorrow; and the catalogue was printed by Lund Humphries. The director of Lund Humphries, Peter Gregory along with Peter Watson were among the original founding patrons of the ICA.

The TIT show is now considered a watershed in post-war British Art and in some respects kick started the development of the British arm of Pop Art.

Parts of "This Is Tomorrow" were recreated in 1990 for an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Artist Teams in Exhibition

* Group One: Theo Crosby, Germano Facetti, William Turnbull [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/williamturnbull/default.shtm] , Edward Wright
* Group Two: Richard Hamilton, John McHale, John Voelcker
* Group Three: J. D. H.Catleugh, James Hull, Leslie Thornton
* Group Four: Anthony Jackson, Sarah Johnson, Emilio Scanavino
* Group Five: John Ernest, Anthony Hill, Denis Williams
* Group Six: Eduardo Paolozzi, Alison and Peter Smithson, Nigel Henderson [http://www.independentgroup.org.uk/contributors/henderson/index.html]
* Group Seven: Victor Pasmore, Erno Goldfinger, Helen Phillips
* Group Eight: James Stirling, Michael Pine (CMHC Ottawa architect), Richard Matthews
* Group Nine: Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin and John Weeks
* Group Ten: Robert Adams, Frank Newby, Peter Carter , Colin St. John Wilson
* Group Eleven: Adrian Heath, John Weeks
* Group Twelve: Lawrence Alloway, Geoffrey Holroyd, Toni del Renzio

External links

* [http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue4/popdaddy.htm Richard Hamilton: Pop Daddy, from an interview by Hans-Ulrich Obrist discussing the exhibition, Tate Magazine]
* [http://www.thisistomorrow2.com/images/cat_1956/cat_web/FrameSet.htm Reproduction of exhibition catalogue]

References