The Pitmen Painters June 23, 2012

'The Pitmen Painters' is a humorous, deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics. In 1934, a group of Ashington miners hired a professor to teach an art appreciation evening class. Rapidly abandoning theory in favor of practice, the pitmen began to paint. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists became their friends and their work was acquired by prestigious collections; but every day they worked, as before, down the mine.