The Post-War artistic output in Europe reflected both a reassessment of identity and the need for dealing with the trauma left by the war; the numerous movements which appeared in the continent – including Cobra, Lyrical Abstraction, Zero Group, Tachisme – had at their root some form of reaction to previous artistic practices.
In Britain, while the response to the aftermath of the war was largely one of introspection, for a group of artists the continental avant-garde still managed to inform and provided a fertile ground for artistic exchange between Britain and Europe.
The present selection of works reflects this fruitful period and the dialogue between European artists and their British counterparts.