Independent Group (art movement)

The IG or Independent Group is known for having launched Pop Art. The term Pop Art was coined by John McHale in 1954. This rather informal group of architects, young artists, sculptors, and critics were looking for more than traditional art within high and low cultures. They were determined to embrace the mass media and Hollywood with new ideas and a brand new culture.

The IG group started around 1952 with Reyner Banham in the chair. He was appointed to the ICA Management Committee as the IG representative in July 1953. Then Reyner Banham became overloaded with his other work, and in late 1954 early 1955 Dorothy Moreland asked Lawrence Alloway and John McHale to reconvene the Independent Group. The IG included Reyner Banham, the art critic Lawrence Alloway who popularized the use of the term "Pop Art" in his later publications, architects Alison and Peter Smithson, Richard Hamilton, William Turnbull, John McHale, Eduardo Paolozzi, Reyner Banham, Frank Cordell, Toni del Renzio and others. They held many discussions in London at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. They focused on popular culture such as Western movies, science fiction, billboards, and machines. Their group held the values of American and British cultures. Their discussions were centered around contemporary mass culture and the manifestations within the United States. In having such discussions they drew upon Futurist, Surrealist, the Bauhaus, and Dadaist concepts. Members of the group also organised exhibitions at the ICA. In 1956 the group came to wider public attention with its participation in the exhibition "This is Tomorrow" . The group continued to meet up until to 1962 when John McHale a founder member of the IG left for America. The Independent Group was also being recognized for declaring an alternative version of modernism - a version that today can be said to have had a great influence within the terms of postmodernism.