Founded in 1967, Stockwell Depot heralded the emergence of the London artists’ studio movement and gained international recognition as a centre for abstraction in Britain.

For over 25 years, this disused former brewery in south London functioned as a cooperative studio and exhibition space. Artists associated with the Depot – Roland Brener, Jennifer Durrant, David Evison, Katherine Gili, Peter Hide and Roelof Louw, among many others – held differing and often competing attitudes towards art. The ambitious work made and shown at the Depot tells the story of late modernism in Britain, tracing a period full of formal experimentation and critical debate.

Incorporating interviews with 10 artists alongside a major essay by Sam Cornish, this volume is the first to examine the artists’ activities within a historical context and to track their development through the Depot’s pivotal annual exhibitions.

Published to coincide with the exhibition Stockwell Depot, 1967–79 at University of Greenwich Galleries, London, 24 July–12 September 2015.

Sam Cornish is a writer and curator. His publications include Bram Bogart (2011), John Panting: Sculpture (2012), Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper (2013) and 'Frank Bowling: Sculpture' (Ridinghouse, 2022). He co-curated the Arts Council touring exhibition Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art (2017–18). Along with Wiz Patterson-Kelly he is editor of the catalogue raisonné of John Hoyland’s paintings on canvas.

David Waterworth is a curator and Senior Lecturer in Media at the University of Greenwich in London, where he is also Curator of the University Galleries. From 2003–07 he was a Lecturer in Visual Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Jon Wood is an art historian and curator specialising in modern and contemporary sculpture, and a trustee of the Gabo Trust for Sculpture Conservation. He worked for 20 years at the Henry Moore Institute, running its research programme and organising exhibitions.