The drawings about to go on display at London’s Saatchi gallery this weekend are remarkable for many reasons. There’s the keen eye for precision of their artist, George Westren; the cryptic titles such as Zeb and Krypton; and the abundant use of something you don’t often see in prestigious art galleries: felt-tip pen. But perhaps the most remarkable fact of all is that, in the summer of 2022, all of these works had been dumped in a skip, about to be destroyed for ever.
It was only thanks to the eagle eyes of Westren’s downstairs neighbour, Alan Warburton, that the artworks survived at all. Warburton ran out and rescued more than 100 of Westren’s drawings after spotting removal men throwing them away from his flat in Spitalfields, east London. And after posting images of the artworks on Twitter, the tale of their last-minute reprise went viral.
But as the Guardian reported at the time, the story was bittersweet. Westren had died the previous summer at the age of 74. A shy outsider, he had endured periods of addiction and homelessness before finding salvation through the precise geometry and monochrome patterns of op-art. Despite his evident passion and professionalism, Westren had achieved only minor success during his life and Warburton, who was struggling to make contact with Westren’s family, was a little unsure how to proceed. Aware that the media spotlight would only last so long, he decided to make prints of the work and sell them; the plan was to raise enough money to fund a small exhibition of the originals as a memorial. What happened next was bigger than anyone could have envisaged.
Warburton says it was largely thanks to the Guardian story that the prints raised more than £50,000 after just two days on sale. Our report also helped trigger a wave of interest in Westren: Saatchi got in touch about potentially exhibiting his work, while ITV ran the story of their discovery on the national news. Westren’s sister and niece happened to see the report on TV and eventually got in touch with Warburton. They hadn’t known the extent of Westren’s artistic output.
“We were very surprised – and pleased – to see Alan telling my uncle’s story on the news a year after his death,” says Sharon Millington, Westren’s niece. It took a while for the family to get their heads around the story. “This was not something they could have ever foreseen happening,” says Warburton. “The fact that their uncle George had this whole other life.”
Warburton offered to hand over the works immediately to Westren’s family (“I had to say, ‘I don’t think they belong to me, they’re yours.’”). But the family were keen for him, as an artist himself, to curate the Saatchi show. Warburton says he has spent more than three months juggling the project alongside his PhD, which has been challenging and emotional but thoroughly rewarding.
The artworks on display at Saatchi are clearly indebted to the British op-art pioneer Bridget Riley, whose own 1999 show in London first ignited Westren’s passion with art. View them from a distance and they swirl around playing tricks with your brain; venture close to them and you can see the very human touch of Westren using his primitive felt-tip pens, which would occasionally start to run low on ink or veer slightly out of the line.
Alongside the original artworks is a short documentary about Westren. Friends and fellow artists from the SMart Network charity recall an eccentric, kind man who helped conquer his demons through art. “George was a lonely man who spent many hours on his artwork,” says Bill Denison, Westren’s friend of 17 years. “He was dedicated to doing the opposite of an office job – a quiet man’s anarchy.”
Edward Emsley, who runs the studio Wild, which made the film, says: “George’s story is powerful because it highlights just how many people are out there who are capable of great things but who are never appreciated or discovered in the time they are alive. I realised that we don’t really get to know the people who live around us enough. We should be more interested in others and speak more to people who live around us.”
Certainly, Warburton’s neighbourly intervention has resulted in a happy ending, and brought Westren’s family comfort too.
“To see his artwork in such a prestigious setting is incredible,” says Millington. “I am just sorry that George is not here to see it. I’m sure he would have been overwhelmed by the global response to his work.”
George Westren: On the Straight and Narrow is at Saatchi Gallery, London, until 25 January.
