Shafts of Light: Mining Art in the Great Northern Coalfield Exhibition

MINING ART IN THE GREAT NORTHERN COALFIELD

The Great Northern Coalfield – was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Not only was this the most productive coalfield, a ready source of fuel spawned many other heavy industries. Shipbuilding, marine and heavy engineering, bridge building and railway locomotive manufacture, iron and steel making, armaments and hydraulics, turbine and electricity generator construction all became prominent forces in the North East’s industrial thrust.

None, however, inspired a corpus of art as did the mines.

The phenomenon of mining art, emanating from what would seem to be the least visually attractive of the heavy industries, deserves special consideration. Why did the miners paint the mines? What attracted others to the colliery as inspiration for their art?

Formal commissioned images of mines exist from the 18th century but experiential mining art, the miner speaking for himself through his paintings, didn’t appear in England until the 1920s. But in the North East the inception of the Spennymoor Settlement in 1931 and the Ashington Group in 1934 saw the blossoming of vernacular mining art.

The movement prospered and many of the North East’s most celebrated contemporary artists derive from their collier roots. Many were full-time pitmen who still found the time and energy to permanently record their experiences in paint.

Professional artists, many with no mining background at all, have found the power of the miners’ world irresistible and have produced their own corpus of work in an artistic celebration that is not emulated for other industries.

More recently, the glow of nostalgia for a way of life consigned to history has inspired many former miners to revisit their past employment to find subject matter for retrospective bodies of work – retaining the memory of mining for future generations.