London Exile: Metropolis, Modernity, and Artistic Migration

In the 1930s and 1940s, London was a metropolis of artistic exile and a place of refuge from Nazi persecution. London Exile is the first book to look at the British capital as a haven for modern artists. The city presented its new arrivals with opportunities and challenges: exiles established galleries, publishing houses and magazines, collaborated with local artists, organised exhibitions, published, and built networks. Artistic and theoretical production flourished in close dialogue with the urban space.

This volume sheds light on how the arrival of émigrés transformed London’s art scene and, conversely, how the experience of exile and the city shaped the work of immigrant artists in fields such as art, architecture, and photography. London Exile brings art history, urban studies, and exile studies into a vibrant dialogue and contributes to a new understanding of the history of modern art.

Burcu Dogramaci is professor of art history and director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis: connect at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.