Figures representing art (left) and industry (right), on the coat of arms of Birmingham
Birmingham has a distinctive culture of art and design that emerged in the 1750s, driven by the historic importance of the applied arts to the city's manufacturing economy.[1] While other early industrial towns such as Manchester and Bradford were based on the manufacture of bulk commodities such as cotton and wool, Birmingham's economy from the 18th century onwards was built on the production of finished manufactured goods for European luxury markets. The sale of these products was dependent on high-quality design, and this resulted in the early growth of an extensive infrastructure for the education of artists and designers and for exhibiting their works, and placed Birmingham at the heart of debate about the role of the visual arts in the emerging industrial society.
The city's history in the fine arts also betrays this influence, with many of Birmingham's most notable artistic figures coming from a commercial or craft background. David Cox originally trained as a painter of theatrical scenery; Walter Langley and David Bomberg were both lithographers; the artists of the Birmingham Group practiced metalwork, book illustration and stained glass manufacture as well as painting; while backgrounds in advertising and commercial graphic design were key influences on the surrealism of Conroy Maddox and the pop art of Peter Phillips.
Birmingham's artistic influence has extended well beyond its borders: David Cox was a major figure of the Golden Age of English watercolour and an early precursor of impressionism; Edward Burne-Jones was the dominant figure of late-Victorian English art and an influence on Symbolism, the Aesthetic movement, and Art Nouveau; David Bomberg was one of the pioneers of English modernism; and Peter Phillips was one of the key figures in the birth of pop art. The sculptor Raymond Mason and the designers John Baskerville, Augustus Pugin, Harry Weedon and Alec Issigonis are all major figures in the history of their fields, while more widely the city has been a notable centre of the Arts and Crafts, Pictorialist and Surrealist movements, and within the fields of metalwork, typography, sculpture, printmaking, photography and stained glass.
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