Dan Jones exhibition at History Library
A retrospective exhibition of local artist Dan Jones spanning forty years of paintings has opened at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.
This vast exhibition features over 50 of Dan’s, often large, paintings and posters reflecting East End life and history, with a focus on the evocation of community life in the borough during the 1970s and 1980s.
‘The work in this exhibition is a long conversation about what I’ve been involved with over the years, living and working and loving Tower Hamlet,’ said Dan Jones. ‘It features personal local heroes, both famous and unknown, naughty boys who turned out to be diamonds after all, and wonderful characters like Trevor Huddlestone, Tommy Finn, Blair Peach, Malcolm Johnson and Tunde Ikoli.’
The paintings feature local Stepney scenes including shoppers and skateboarders in bustling Watney Market, the traditional Wapping Pipe and Drum Band and the community-organised E1 Festival.
Dan’s subjects also include political demonstrations from East End history right up to the time of his paintings, including the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921, the anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in 1996 and the march to save the former Inner London Education Authority in the 1980s.
His posters publicised many local causes including demonstrations against racist murders, promoting canoeing in Shadwell Basin and the recruitment of Bangladeshi foster parents.
The exhibition will run until November 15 at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives is at 277 Bancroft Road, E1 4DQ.
fjdka;jfdkas;