The Seven and Five Society

The Seven and Five Society: Reshaping Modern British Art Between the Wars 

In 1919 a group of seven painters and five sculptors came together with one simple aim: a return to order.  Believing that modern art developed too quickly before the First World War, its members advocated for a more traditional approach to art.  However, the path taken by Seven and Five Society quickly veered far from this original intention.  Under the leadership of Ben Nicholson from 1926 it became the most successful modern art group of the interwar period. It included progressive artists like Barbara Hepworth, Winifred Nicholson and Henry Moore, and staged the first completely abstract art exhibition in Britain.  

This exhibition explores the story of the Seven and Five Society during its operating years of 1919-1935.  It reveals the way the society transformed with changes in membership, the difficulties caused by conflicting ideologies and, ultimately, the group’s importance in driving forwards modernism in Britain.  The story is told predominantly through the lens of the collection at Museum & Art Swindon.  It includes collection artworks by Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Mary Potter, John Skeaping, William Staite-Murray, Alfred Wallis and Christopher Wood, and a loaned artwork by Winifred Nicholson. 

Image Credit: ‘Spring in Eden’ (1925) by Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), Oil paint on canvas, Museum & Art Swindon, ©Estate of Ivon Hitchens