TWO artists who paved the way for the "Brit Art" movement are reuniting to endorse the only work of art they collaborated on.

Middlesbrough artist Alan Morley met John Bartlett at Maidstone College of Art, where they became friends and allies.

They were both painters, despite it being unfashionable at the time, with contemporary art being weighted towards the conceptual.

When they left college in 1983 Mr Bartlett gave Mr Morley the gift of one of his works depicting his native East End, but it nagged at the recipient that something was missing.

In the 1990s he realised what it was, and painted his friend John into the scene. It now stands as the only piece co-created by the two.

Mr Morley said: “We were serious artists, even at a young age, and we knew painting was regarded as old-fashioned but we began to find out we were part of a growing backlash, nationally and globally, against all the pretence and con of much of contemporary art.

“We and others rebelled and brought back the wealth of ingredients necessary for healthy art practice – politics, joy, emotion, symbolism, metaphor, storytelling and paint as an object.

“Because of our fight, we paved the way for the popular Brit Art, led by people like Tracey Emin, who was a couple of years behind us at the college, and Damien Hirst.

“We made art ‘visually dependent’ again and Brit Art was visually dependent - it is sometimes referred to as ‘conceptual’, but that is inaccurate.”

John is heading north to Teesside tomorrow (SATURDAY) to add his signature to the piece at Middlesbrough’s Python Gallery.

Alan is then taking John to view two pieces created at college called If That’s What They Call Art! which are on display at mima as part of the Localism exhibition.