Title Pending 9677

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.The historyand work of the Independent Group (1952-5) has recently attracted unprecedentedlevels of attention in publications and exhibitions. However, within the fieldof art history, the issue of social class is absent in recent work andoversimplified in twentieth-century accounts. The article brings morespecificity to the question of the working-class avant garde and theIndependent Group, using new research into the backgrounds, education andcareers of its members. It considers the phenomenon of the scholarship boy andincreased financial support to study art and design in the post war years, plusthe social mix which created a frisson and a new, more authentic understandingof mass culture within the context of high cultural capital. Public fundingenabled many who would not traditionally have benefitted from tertiaryeducation to undertake full-time study, and this class dynamic made adifference to the post war cultural landscape and the development of asignificant avant garde. Working class culture is a vital, yet overlooked, componentof the Independent Group project. This was manifest in its discussions and wellas the creative work generated, whether in art, design or writing and theculture of collage in particular. The article focusses on Lawrence Alloway,Reyner Banham, Richard Hamilton, John McHale, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Smithsonand William Turnbull who all hailed from working-class or lower-middle-classbackgrounds and were supported by their partners, thus introducing an aspect ofgender to the analysis. The article provides a fresh understanding of thissub-group and adds to a growing and vibrant field of study.