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Abstract
This article explores the London Gallery as a disseminator of modern art. So far, the London Gallery has been considered as a gallery for surrealism only, as its longest-serving director, E.L.T. Mesens, promoted surrealism all his life (1903–1971). By considering particularly its early exhibition history and activities in the 1930s, this article will show first that the London Gallery supported any avant-garde art contemporary to its showing, and second that commercial art galleries were the driving force behind the dissemination of modern art in London, using a number of marketing strategies that also included a claim to education.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author’s note on illustrations
Only those photographs and exhibition brochures have been reproduced that are difficult to locate or that are discussed in the text. Most of the pamphlets can be consulted at the National Art Library, London (under London Gallery catalogues). They are also part of Mesens’ papers, The Getty Research Library, Los Angeles.
London Gallery Exhibitions
A list of exhibitions held at the London Gallery is given in the appendix on the next few pages.
Notes
1 This article is based on a paper presented in the session ‘London’s Commercial Art Market: Art on sale and display from 1920 to now’, convened by Dr Jennifer Powell, at the AAH conference, University of Reading, April 11 to 13, 2013. A fellowship at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany gave me the time and financial support to expand the paper into this article. The author would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions that greatly strengthened the arguments in this article.
2 For example, the first surrealist show in the US was held at an art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford (Connecticut), followed shortly after by an exhibition at the commercial Julien Levi Gallery in New York. The insight into surrealism as a movement that was not promoted by one gallery dominant enough to take a monopolistic position was the starting point for a project titled ‘Surrealism by Galleries, Collectors and Mediators’ (2015-2017); see https://dfk-paris.org/en/research-project/surrealism-and-money-dealers-collectors-and-gallerists-971.html. Through a number of colloquia (one of which was dedicated to surrealism in the US), the project aimed to show that surrealism was spread by a large number of galleries, collectors and mediators (http://www.labex-arts-h2h.fr/en/surrealism-by-galleries-collectors.html). For this information, I am grateful to the anonymous peer-reviewer of this article.
3 See Caputo, Collezionismo e mercato. The London Gallery is mentioned in Geurts-Krauss, E.L.T. Mesens and Melly, Don’t Tell Sybil. There is also a short review of surrealist books by Del Renzio, titled ‘Who is ELT Mesens?’, 48–9, an unpublished PhD on Mesens by Diane Naylor, ‘ELT Mesens. His Contribution to the Dada and Surrealist Movements in Belgium and England as Artist, Poet and Dealer’ and material in Penrose, Scrap Book 1900–1981.
4 In this way, this article contributes to the current re-examination of surrealism as a global phenomenon undertaken in the UK, spearheaded by the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, in collaboration with the AHRC (https://courtauld.ac.uk/study/phd-research/global-surrealism-tracing-international-networks), a project which will also contribute to an exhibition on surrealism organ-ized by Tate Modern and planned to travel to the Art Institute of Chicago in the autumn 2020.
5 Most of the material concerning the London Gallery is held in Mesens’ papers, The Getty Research Library, Los Angeles. Some other material is held there in the papers of Douglas Cooper and in the Peter Norton papers, Tate Collection, London.
6 The London Bulletin was edited by E.L.T. Mesens (from the first issue), by the artist Gordon Onslow-Ford (1912–2003) and artist and filmmaker Humphrey Jennings (1907–1950) from issue no. 3 (June 1938), and by Roland Penrose from issue 8/9 published in January 1939 (being replaced as assistant editor by George Reavey from issue no 11, published in March 1939). It was printed by the Bradley Press (49 Broadwick Street, London) and appeared monthly from 1938 to June 1940 (20 issues altogether), but was suspended with the issue for June 1939 (no. 15) and then re-issued by the Surrealist Group in England at the beginning of 1940, ceasing with the issue for June 1940. A reprint of all issues with a newly prepared index was published by the Arno Press, New York in 1969. Manuscripts of the contributions to London Bulletin sent by Mesens are kept in Mesens’ papers (Boxes 14 and 15).
7 N.N., ‘Advertisement’, n.p.
8 Ibid.
9 The full list is as follows (names, titles and places are given as they appear in the original): America (Marian Willard); Australia (A.J. Ralton); Austria (Herbert Bayer); Belgium (E.L.T. Mesens); England (Herbert Read, Henry Moore, Ashley Havinden); France (Hans Arp); Germany (Prof. Walter Gropius, London; Prof. Dorner, Hannover); Holland (Ir. Albert Boeken); Hungary (Prof. L. Moholy-Nagy, London; Marcel Breuer, London); Italy (N. Poli, Milan), Japan (no name mentioned, but the country is listed, suggesting that the intention was to find someone to represent Japan); Spain (Perez de Ayala, Madrid, and Sevt, Barcelona); Switzerland (Hans Girsberger, C. Giedion-Welcker).
10 Melly, Don’t Tell Sybil, 44.
11 This was mentioned by Gill Hedley in her paper on Arthur Jeffress, presented in the session ‘London’s Commercial Art Market: Art on sale and display from 1920 to now’, convened by Dr Jennifer Powell, AAH conference, University of Reading, April 11 to 13, 2013. According to Gill Hedley, whose father-in-law was Peter Norton’s first cousin, Norton was born Noel Evelyn Hughes and married Clifford Norton. She called herself Peter after Peter Pan, remembered from childhood.
12 See Holz, “‘ … not my most beautiful but my best paintings … ”’, 88.
13 Melly, Don’t Tell Sybil, 11.
14 See Geurts-Krauss, E.L.T. Mesens, 87.
15 The commission was specified as either 5% of the difference between the acquisition and sale price, 5% of the commission paid to the society, or 10% on the works that belonged to him and to Penrose. See for the original: ‘ses appointements s’élèvent à six livres par semaine plus les commissions, soit 5 % sur la différence entre le prix de revient et le prix de vente, 5% sur les commissions payées à la société et 10% sure le œuvres lui appartemeant ainsi qu’à Penrose.’ Unpublished contract of 27 Feb. 1938, cited by Geurts-Krauss, L’alchimiste Méconnu du Surréalisme, 92.
16 Melly, Don’t Tell Sybil, 47.
17 Ibid. 50.
18 Ibid. For an illustration of one of the gallery floors, see Geurts-Krauss, L’alchimiste Méconnu du Surréalisme, 114.
19 Watson, From Manet to Manhattan, 276 (without providing more details on the source).
20 See MacGilp, ‘Matthew Smith, The Tate Gallery, and the London art market’, 212.
21 N.N., ‘Introduction’, n.p. (1930s).
22 Ibid.
23 See Dewey, “‘Construction through a Plane” by Naum Gabo’, 755; Gardiner, A Scatter of Memories, 185; and N.N., ‘Minutes of Editorial Board Meetings’.
24 The introduction to the book also explained the name Unit One: ‘The title then combines the idea of unity – Unit – with that of individuality – One.’ See N.N., ‘Introduction’, n.p. (1934).
25 See Lewison, ‘Foreword’, 5.
26 Gabo, ‘Speech’, 4.
27 Ibid. 6.
28 Ibid. 9.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 See Read, ‘The Development of Ben Nicholson’, 9-10.
32 See Moholy-Nagy Foundation http://moholy-nagy.org/exhibitions-archive/. The New London Gallery founded after the war is unrelated to the London Gallery.
33 Stephenson, ‘Strategies of Display and Modes of Consumption in London Art Galleries in the Inter-War years,’ 116.
34 For a list of artist refugees from Nazi Germany in Britain, see Vinzent, Identity and Image, Appendix.
35 See Holz, “‘ … not my most beautiful but my best paintings … ”’, 88. Although Lady Norton abandoned the exhibition idea in late December 1937, when she left London to accompany her husband, she nevertheless played a decisive role in the mounting of the exhibition ‘Twentieth Century German Art’ held at the New Burlington Galleries in London from July 8 to August 27, 1938, which is considered a protest against the 1937 exhibition organized by the Nazis.
36 See, for example, Penrose, ‘From Egypt’, 15, which introduces the manifesto of the Egyptian group Art et Liberté entitled ‘Long Live Degenerate Art’, published on the following pages. This print demonstrates the journal’s support of the group’s opinion, also shared by 36 intellectuals who had signed the manifesto.
37 See London Bulletin, June 1940. Though published without an author’s name, it is most likely that it was written by Mesens as the editor of the issue. The capitalization is as in the original.
38 See Fletcher, Shopping for Art, 47–64.
39 One guinea was 21 shillings or £1.05 in decimal money.
40 The Tate paid for works by Smith: £17 in 1924, £100 in 1927 and £250 in the 1930s. This means that, in guineas, Smith’s first painting bought by the Tate was 16 Gns and 4 shillings. For prices paid by the Tate, see Alexandra MacGilp, ‘Matthew Smith, The Tate Gallery, and the London Art Market’, 212.
41 See List of Art Works with Prices, typescript, 3 pages, unpublished (Mesens’ papers, 12/11). There are no buyers’ names.
42 See Mesens’ papers, 12/11.
43 See Edvard Munch to the London Gallery, Oslo, 7 Nov. 1936 (Mesens’ papers, 4/3). For dealers, see Robert Giron, several letters to Mesens, Brussels, in June 1937 (Mesens’ papers, 4/6). For after the war, see Mesens’ papers, 5/11. For the exchange rate, see the Historical Currency Converter, http://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html.
44 See, for example, the correspondence between Mesens and Pierre Matisse in 1939, unpublished (Mesens’ papers, 4/12).
45 For this argument, I am grateful to one of the anonymous peer-reviewers of this essay.
46 See, for example, Dorner, ‘Herbert Bayer’, 7–11 (the name of the translator is not given).
47 See the Woolworth Museum at http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/1930s-openinggambit.htm and http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/1930s-daylife.htm.
48 See N.N., ‘Authorisation’, unpublished (Mesens’ papers, 13/10).
49 See, for example, The London Gallery News, Dec. 1946, 8 pp. (Mesens’ papers, 12/12).
50 Melly, Don’t Tell Sybil, 126.
51 See Mesens’ papers, 6/8.
52 Ibid.
53 See ibid. 128.
54 See MacGilp, ‘Matthew Smith, The Tate Gallery, and the London Art Market’, 212.
55 See Spalding, The Tate, 9.
56 See MacGilp, ‘Matthew Smith, The Tate Gallery, and the London Art Market’, 212.
57 Nigel Vaux Halliday, More Than a Bookshop, 96, provides the following figures as profit for its gallery: 1934 – c. £1,400; 1935 – £2,946; 1936 – £3,566; 1937 – £1,053 and 1938 – £1,536.
58 See Vinzent, ‘Muteness as Utterance of a Forced Reality’, 301-37.
59 The fact that the art gallery was commercial offers the possibility of studying not only the personal network of the gallery directors, particularly that of Mesens, but also that of the gallery with buyers as well as with artists. A mapping of these three networks would bring to the fore the gallery’s social network that would help assess in what ways the gallery’s curatorial narratives were shaped by the personal interests of the gallery directors. To undertake this in the thoroughness that this topic deserves, would require an analysis beyond the scope of this article.
60 See MacGilp, ‘Matthew Smith, The Tate Gallery, and the London Art Market’, 212; and at more length, MacGilp, ‘The London Art World and the Formation of a National Collection of Modern British and Foreign Works at Tate 1926–1946ʹ.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jutta Vinzent
Jutta Vinzent (MA Munich, DrPhil Cologne, PhD Cambridge) is Senior Lecturer for Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has been awarded repeated Fellowships at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany and was Adjunct Professor of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea (2010–15). Vinzent’s research interests include modern and contemporary art, in particular space and time, migration, and exhibition cultures. She teaches several modules on exhibition histories and curating and has designed the MA programme in Art History and Curating taught at the University of Birmingham. Publications include: ‘Muteness as Utterance of a Forced Reality – Jack Bilbo’s Modern Art Gallery (1941–1948)’, The Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies 6 (2005), 301–37 and ‘Space and Form in String Sculptures: Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore’ (in The Problem of Form. The Interplay between Modern Art and the Discipline of Art History and Theory, 1890–1960, ed. R. Prange, Berlin 2016, 355-381). Her monographs comprise Overcoming Dictatorships. Contemporary East and West European Visual Inquiries (Leipzig 2008) and Identity and Image. Refugee Artists from Nazi Germany in Britain, 1933–1945 (Weimar 2006).