Modern British Art: May 2019

Our annual Modern British exhibitions give us a welcome opportunity to show our new acquisitions and to announce our programme for the rest of the year. Many of the works in the exhibition will also be at Masterpiece from 27th June – 3rd July and then in the gallery during the summer. Our collection emphasises the continued strength of Modern
British art, and in particular we are seeing much more interest across Europe and USA in the key British artists of the post war era. St Ives and London school artists are now far more widely recognised and the success of London art fairs such as Masterpiece and Frieze Masters bring Modern British art to a global audience.

This year’s collection is strong on sculpture as usual but also includes a fine Auerbach portrait of his son Jake, a superb Bomberg Ronda painting, an important Gertler still life of 1937, a classic 1963 Feiler and a rare Christopher Wood harbour scene. For the first time many of our catalogue entries are by Judith LeGrove, who has contributed some
excellent new texts.

Following the Modern British show we have the long awaited Keith Vaughan exhibition, our fourth and most comprehensive. We can only do these shows because we know where many of the best Vaughans are to be found. We have been able to secure some important loans and in total there will be around 50 paintings and works on paper in the show, of which over 40 will be for sale. We are very grateful to Gerard Hastings,
the leading Vaughan scholar, for his enthusiastic support and excellent writing. The exhibition is from June 6th – July 12th and a catalogue will be available.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is staging the biggest ever exhibition of the linocuts of the Grosvenor School, Cutting Edge, Modern British Printmaking, from June 21st to September 8th. Curated by Gordon Samuel this exceptional collection of 150 works is an ambitious project and loans have been secured from museums and collectors from around the world. The remarkable works of Claude Flight , Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, as well as their Australian counterparts, some of which will be
seen in the UK for the first time in a major exhibition – embrace futurism, vorticism and very much define the age in which they were created.

Our year is now punctuated by the major international art fairs and we recognise that some of our collectors prefer to see us at these shows. Our main summer event is Masterpiece London, which has developed into an unmissable showcase of the very best of art, design, furniture, jewellery from around the world. This year’s event runs from June 27th to July 3rd and as usual tickets are not easy to get, especially for
the preview on June 26th, so do let us know if you would like to come.

Autumn highlights at the gallery include a major Lynn Chadwick exhibition from September 24th to October 25th. We have specialised in the work of Lynn Chadwick for many decades and have secured several important works for the show which will span five decades of his career and will include unique works in iron and plaster as well as early and later bronzes.

We returned to Frieze Masters in 2018 in collaboration with David Koetser, one of the world’s leading Old Master dealers and co-curated an exhibition of British sculpture alongside classic Dutch paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Frieze curators are keen on such ‘conversations’ across the centuries and have asked us to reprise the
exhibition this year. Frieze is from October 3rd to 6th. In the same week the British Art Fair returns to the Saatchi Gallery, so we have the challenge of curating two art fairs at the same time.

It is three years since our last exhibition of Sean Henry and he is busy making new work for our show following his highly successful exhibitions around Europe and at the Lightbox Gallery in his home town of Woking. The exhibition runs from October 31st to November 22nd.Then we complete the year with an exhibition of new work by Brendan Burns from November 28th through to the end of the year. We return as usual to the New York Print Fair from October 23rd to 27th and Art Miami from December 3rd to 8th. This will be our 30th trip to South Florida, and we have already lined up some significant works including an installation by William Kentridge. And looking into the future with 2020 vision we will be at the London Art Fair from January 22nd – 26th, BRAFA Brussels from January 26th to February 2nd and TEFAF Maastricht from March 14th to 22nd. A major Henry Moore exhibition is also planned for February. So it will be another busy year ahead for us. Do come and visit us at Dering Street where we have now been for two years. One day soon the Crossrail work will be finished and the area around us will look less like a building site, but we are easy to find. Dering St is at the top of New Bond St, opposite Bonhams. And do contact us if you want tickets for
art fairs or advice on any aspect of your collection.

Peter Osborne, Gordon Samuel, Tania Sutton, May 2019