The Systems Group was a group of British artists working in the constructivist tradition. The group was formed after an inaugural Helsinki exhibition in 1969 entitled Systeemi•System. The exhibition coordinator Jeffrey Steele together with Malcolm Hughes, invited the participating artists to form a group in 1970. The Systems Group had no manifesto and no formal membership; it existed for the purpose of discussion and exhibition rather than direct collaboration.

Constructivism is an early twentieth-century art movement founded in 1915 by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Abstract and austere, constructivist art aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. The movement rejected decorative stylization in favour of the industrial assemblage of materials. Constructivists were in favour of art for propaganda and social purposes, and were associated with Soviet socialism, the Bolsheviks and the Russian avant-garde.