The First Exhibition in the Barbican Art Gallery

The first show in the Barbican Art Gallery was called Aftermath: France 1945-54 / New Images of Man. It was on display from 4 March - 20 June 1982.

The paintings and sculpture shown had all been made in France in the period after the Second World War.

The artists shown included Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger and Jean Dubuffet.

Until 2001, the Gallery wasn't technically part of the Centre -- it was actually managed by the Corporation of London's Library Department.

There was controversy about the exhibition within the City of London. Some people felt that the first exhibition should have been of the City's own Guildhall Art Collection.

Henry Wrong, the Centre's administrator, disagreed. He thought it was 'particularly relevant to the Barbican, which itself rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of World War II' - referring to the fact that the Barbican was built on a bombsite.

Aftermath was accompanied by an exhibition of contemporary Canadian tapestries, downstairs in the Concourse Gallery.

Today we know the space as the Curve, which has featured boundary-pushing artistic commissions since 2006.