Biography
Ben Uri was founded on 1st July 1915 by the Russian émigré artist Lazar Berson in Gradel’s restaurant, Whitechapel, in the heart of London’s East End. Originally called ‘The Jewish National Decorative Art Association (London), Ben Ouri’, it was established to support and nurture art and creativity – still a key focus of Ben Uri’s work today.
The name Ben Uri echoes that of legendary biblical craftsman Bezalel Ben Uri (Exodus, Chapter 35, verses 30-35), the creator of the tabernacle in the Temple of Jerusalem, reflecting a kinship with the ideals of the famous Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts founded in Jerusalem nine years earlier in 1906. During the 1920s, Ben Uri moved from its East End home to a central London location, first near the British Museum in Bloomsbury, later moving to the West End and finally, in the 1950s, to Dean Street in London’s Soho, where it ran a programme of exhibitions and cultural activities until the 1990s.
In 2002, Ben Uri moved to north London to a space on Boundary Road in St John’s Wood, near to the original site of the Saatchi Gallery and a short distance from the zebra crossing on Abbey Road made famous by The Beatles in August 1969, recording at the nearby studios. In partnership with the Jewish Museum, Frankfurt – Ben Uri celebrated its re-opening with the internationally-acclaimed exhibition of works by the famous German Expressionist Ludwig Meidner and his artist wife Else.
Ben Uri continues to curate groundbreaking exhibitions in this temporary home, while looking for a permanent gallery space to display its unique collection of over 1300 works in its entirety. Until a central London gallery is found the bulk of the Ben Uri Collection remains in secure storage although the entire collection can be seen online.
