Kitchen Sink Artists

 Although I have explored the meaning of the kitchen sink dramas within my essay it is key to acknowledge where the term was coined with the painters of the 1950's. 

The Tate describes the movement as; 

John Bratby 

The term was originally used as the title of an article by the critic David Sylvester in the December 1954 issue of the journal Encounter.

 The article discussed the work of the realist artists known as the Beaux Arts Quartet, John Bratby, Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith. Sylvester wrote that their work ‘takes us back from the studio to the kitchen’ and described their subjects as: ‘An inventory which includes every kind of food and drink, every utensil and implement, the usual plain furniture and even the babies’ nappies on the line. Everything but the kitchen sink – the kitchen sink too.’ Sylvester also emphasised that these kitchens were ones ‘in which ordinary people cooked ordinary food and doubtless lived their ordinary lives’.

From Sylvester's term it was then applied to artists of all genres, painters, writers and actors if they were concerned with the day-to-day and the mundane then they were part of the kitchen sink movement.

I feel although the works of these artists were generally quite political and sought to portray the conditions many of them had grown up in and couldn't escape as an aspect of being working-class the movement offers, for me especially, a comfort in something that is seen as valuable such as art and film but at the same time relatable. 

Within my work it is essential that it reaches a working-class audience where they can see themselves within one of the scenes, disregarding any political or educational views it should be accessible to everyone. I have found within most films, literature and art there seems to be a standard of education needed to understand and access the information, this is something I want to avoid completely within my work and why I am inspired by the kitchen sink movement because it is for the people and for the working-classes as well as being appreciated from a traditionally 'higher brow' culture. 

John Bratby