New exhibition highlights success of Bradford School of Art teachers and pupils including David Hockney

"Taught" began at the Dye House Gallery in Bradford College yesterday, and includes paintings, sculptures and mixed media installations from artists from the school's past.

It runs in the gallery, which underwent a major refurbishment in 2014, for two weeks.

The art school has been based in the city in one way or another since the 1860s, having produced many top names over the years. The exhibition features both recent pieces and art dating back to the 1970s.

Artists being exhibited as part of the event include children's book illustrator Mick Manning, sculptor Ian Taylor, whose 3D art pieces are dotted around the gallery, highly acclaimed realist painter Darren Baker and former tutor Frank Johnson, who taught members of the "Bradford Mafia" David Hockney and David Oxtoby.

Some of the pieces that make up the exhibition, such as the Hockney paintings like The Hypnotist, come from the college's archives while others were provided by the artists after the college got in touch about the exhibition.

Although several former students have recently had their work displayed in their own exhibitions in the gallery, this is the first time in several years that such a wide ranging exhibition has taken place, involving so many artists and different styles.

Some of the paintings directly reference the college, such as a painting by Johnson of an engineer at the college from 1975. The prolific portrait painter taught commercial art, drawing and painting at the college of art from 1952 to 1980.

David Hockney attended the art school in 1953, graduating with honours in 1957 and going on to become one of the UK's best known artists. He was taught and heavily influenced by Johnson. While at the college he was part of a group known as the Bradford Mafia. Another member was pop artist David Oxtoby, and pieces of his work are also included in the exhibition.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is an eye catching installation called Sweethearts by Morwenna Catt, who studied BA Art and Design at Bradford Art College. The piece is a textile installation of outsized Sweetheart cushions, each suspended from the ceiling of the gallery with military webbing and dripping with threads. They mimic the pincushions that were often created by wounded soldiers recovering in hospitals during WWI. The hearts were often sent out in kit form as a kind of therapy and were decorated with embroidery, beading and regimental badges.

Andy Goldworthy attended the school of art from 1974 to 1975, and has gone on to become an internationally acclaimed sculptor, photographer and environmentalist. He recently had a popular exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.He has kept close links with the college's tutors, and said: "There was always an energy around Bradford at the time I went to the Art College. It wasn’t something that I have really been able to put into words."

Last year former lecturer Martin Hearne displayed his paintings of day to day life in Bradford as part of an exhibition in the gallery titled A Vague Frontier. Some of these pieces have returned for this exhibition.

And pieces by former student Jacky Al-Samarraie show how art can be used for commercial products - her photographic images adorn placemats, mugs and stationary in a display case in the exhibition.

Andrew Harrison, arts and cultural curator at Bradford College, said: "A lot of the artists that went here seem to keep in touch anyway.

"A few of our alumni have had exhibitions, but it is the first time in my time here that we have had a full alumni exhibition like this.

"It is really good for our current staff and students to see the success that has come from the school. It is nice to show the creativity that has come from here."

He said the different styles and media that make up Taught make it very different from usual art exhibitions.

The exhibition runs in the gallery, based in the Lister Building, from Monday to Friday, from 10am to 4pm until April 27.