From its initial publication in London in 1988, Pitmen Painters, the story of the Ashington Group from 1934 to 1984 has been of interest to many. Since 2007 when Lee Hall's play The Pitmen Painters, inspired by the book, was first staged at Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne it has become increasingly recognized as a classic account of the role art can play in modern life. Whatever the odds, whatever the circumstances.
The Ashington Group began in the 1930s as an evening class of pitmen in an isolated village in the North of England drawn together in their spare time to learn a bit about art appreciation. The book tells how appreciation of their work spread in the Thirties, how they were tracked down by documentary photographers and film makers, how they resisted interference and kept their distance from the sniffer dogs of the socio-anthropological Mass Observation movement. Establishing complete independence for themselves in their own ex-army hut they met weekly for decades, through into the 1980's by which time their work began to be recognized as unique. By then they had built up a permanent collection of what they decided were their best paintings. This was toured in Europe and, in 1980, to China, the first such exhibition there since the cooling of the Cultural Revolution. A gallery for the collection was built at Woodhorn Colliery in Ashington and now, with the demise of the coal industry in Great Britain, renamed the Woodhorn Colliery Museum. Feaver's book, meanwhile, inspired Lee Hall, creator of the smash hit Billy Elliot, to write his play about the group, The Pitmen Painters which, following acclaimed seasons at the National Theatre in London, has been taken up in Korea, New Zealand, Estonia and Slovenia and many other countries worldwide. The play opened at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre on Broadway in September 2010.
