Grosvenor Gallery - London - United Kingdom

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Grosvenor Gallery was first established by the American sociologist and writer EricEstoric (1913-1993) who began to collect works of art when he came to live in England after the Second World War. Estorick’s love affair with the art world began while he was a student in New York University in the 1930s. In the college library, where Estorick spent long hours, he was exposed to one of the most important collections of 20th century art. It contained the works of almost every famous artist of the period – Braque, Arp, Brancusi, Gonzales, Klee, Leger, Matisse and more. This collection was to have a major influence on him.

Estorick moved to England in 1947 after his marriage to Salome Dessau. In the initial years, the couple developed a major collection of Italian art, which at one time was considered the most important collection of Italian art outside Italy. It was exhibited in major exhibitions including the one at the Tate Gallery in 1956. It was then that Estorick became a full time art dealer and went on to establish the Grosvenor Gallery in 1960, with its first premise on Davies Street. It was the largest and best equipped gallery in England at the time. The old Grosvenor Gallery that specialized in the Pre-Raphaelites had closed in 1906.

Around this time, several of the older galleries of London closed down. A number of young British artists associated with these galleries joined Estorick in his new venture. This move along with Estorick’s own remarkable collection of 20th century art led Grosvenor Gallery to prominence.

Grosvenor Gallery went on to exhibit some of the major European artists of the time – some for the first time in London such as Magritte, Picasso, Sironi, Chagall, Lissitzky and Archipenko. Grosvenor Gallery also represented an impressive group of young artists such as Michael Ayrton, Jack Smith, Prunella Clough, John Hoskin and Karl Weschke. Estorick also added the already well known artists F.N. Souza and Paul Feiler. It held important exhibitions of Italian art such as First Image in 1963 including the works by the painter Enrico Baj and sculptors Cascella and Silvestri, a major retrospective exhibition of paintings by Sironi.

Apart from Western European art, the Gallery was the principal outlet in the West for modern art from Eastern Europe. It also sold works by living Soviet artists, which was a major accomplishment for a Western gallery. Furthermore Estorick championed several South African artists notably Stern, Dumile and Kumalo.

The Gallery was located on Albermale street in the 1990s and then in 2000 it moved to Ryder Street. It was still dealing in Modern British and International Art while exhibiting primarily Modern and Contemporary Indian art.

The artist F.N. Souza has been a focus, his first show was The Human and the Divine Predicament (1964), followed by Black Art and Other Paintings (1966) followed by shows in 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005 at the Tate Britain in London and 2 shows in New York in 2005 and 2008.

In 2006, Grosvenor Gallery collaborated with Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi to form Grosvenor Vadehra. The purpose of this collaboration was to promote international art in India and Indian art in the United Kingdom. There were three inaugural exhibitions of Indian art at the time The Moderns Revisited, Inverting/Inventing Traditions and Here and Now: Young Voices from India, which were all well received in London. Since then the Gallery has has continued to have exhibitions of modern and contemporary Indian art. It also had exhibitions of international art in India including a Pablo Picasso exhibition in 2006 and a highly acclaimed exhibition of Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon along with Tyeb Mehta and F.N. Souza in 2007.

The gallery currently also represents two of the finest living painters in the UK, Mark Shields and Victor Newsome.

Going forward Grosvenor Gallery will continue to focus on showing the best Modern and Contemporary Art from India and Britain and as well as some masterpieces.

Website : http://grosvenorgallery.com/

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