Perspectives: Robson Green and the Pitmen Painters, ITV1 | reviews, news & interviews
Perspectives: Robson Green and the Pitmen Painters, ITV1
Perspectives: Robson Green and the Pitmen Painters, ITV1
Miner's son revisits Ashington's colliery artists
Sunday, 08 May 2011
Robson Green contemplates the legacy of the Northumbrian mining industry
The story of the Pitmen Painters, a group of Northumbrian miners who decided to study art appreciation in their spare time and developed into a group of untrained but powerfully expressive artists, has been documented in a book by William Feaver and a play by Lee Hall. Robson Green's particular interest in the story stems from the fact that he's a miner's son, brought up in Dudley, a few miles south of the pitmen's hometown of Ashington.
The story of the Pitmen Painters, a group of Northumbrian miners who decided to study art appreciation in their spare time and developed into a group of untrained but powerfully expressive artists, has been documented in a book by William Feaver and a play by Lee Hall. Robson Green's particular interest in the story stems from the fact that he's a miner's son, brought up in Dudley, a few miles south of the pitmen's hometown of Ashington.
Considering these men had left school at 12 to go straight down the pit, and had never known a life outside Ashington, it suggested something almost mystical about art and creativity
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