London's Arts Labs and the 60s Avant-Garde

The Drury Lane Arts Lab (1967–69) and the Robert Street New Arts Lab (1969–71) were two short-lived artist-run spaces in Britain associated with innovative developments in the arts in the late 1960s. The Drury Lane Arts Lab hosted the first UK screenings of Andy Warhol's twin-screen 3-hour film Chelsea Girls, challenging exhibitions, poetry, music, and fringe theatre. The Robert Street New Arts Lab housed Britain's first video workshop TVX, the London Filmmakers Co-op's first workshop, and a 5-days-a-week cinema devoted to showing new work by moving-image artists. The impact of these Labs led to an explosion of new artist-led spaces across Britain, but the Arts Council's hesitant response was met with hostility from the popular press.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 212 pages
Publication date: 24 November 2020
Publisher: John Libbey & Co

The Drury Lane Arts Lab (1967-1969) and the Robert Street New Arts Lab (1969-1971) were two short-lived artist-run spaces in Britain that played a significant role in the late 1960s arts scene. The Drury Lane Arts Lab was home to the first UK screenings of Andy Warhol's twin-screen 3-hour film Chelsea Girls, challenging exhibitions, poetry and music, and fringe theatre. It also hosted the infamous Crashed Cars exhibition by J G Ballard and pioneering computer-aided dance/mime performances by John & Dianne Lifton. The Robert Street New Arts Lab housed Britain's first video workshop, TVX, the London Filmmakers Co-op's first workshop, and a 5-days-a-week cinema devoted to showing new work by moving-image artists. It also staged the J G Ballard's infamous Crashed Cars exhibition and John & Dianne Lifton's pioneering computer-aided dance/mime performances. The impact of London's Labs led to an explosion of new artist-led spaces across Britain, but the Arts Council's hesitant response was met with hostility from the popular press, experimental art, and the underground. This book relates the struggles of FACOP (Friends of the Arts Council Operative) to make the case for these new kinds of space and these new art-forms and the Arts Council's hesitant response in the context of a popular press already hostile to youth culture, experimental art, and the underground. With a Foreword by Andrew Wilson, Curator Modern & Contemporary British Art and Archives, Tate Gallery.

Weight: 580g
Dimension: 240 x 199 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780861967483