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| Redfern Gallery | |
|---|---|
| Name | Redfern Gallery |
| Established | 1923 |
| Location | Cork Street, London |
| Type | Commercial art gallery |
Redfern Gallery Redfern Gallery is a London commercial art gallery founded in 1923 notable for promoting twentieth-century and contemporary artists including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Patrick Heron. The gallery played a role in early exhibitions of British art, Modernism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism in the United Kingdom, exhibiting works by figures such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian while representing emerging artists associated with movements including Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptual Art.
Founded in 1923 by Arthur Knyvett-Leon and Anthony Maxtone Graham, the gallery opened during the interwar period alongside institutions like Tate Britain, National Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Whitechapel Gallery and Serpentine Galleries. Early decades saw exhibitions featuring artists connected to Bloomsbury Group, Vorticism, and continental networks tied to Salon d'Automne, Galerie Maeght and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. After World War II the gallery exhibited artists associated with Unit One, Seven and Five Society, The London Group and launched solo shows for sculptors and painters later linked to St Ives School, British Pop Art, YBA precursors and international figures from Paris, New York, Berlin and Rome.
Originally located in Cork Street in Mayfair, the gallery joined a precinct long associated with dealers such as Grafton Gallery, MacDougall's, Pace Gallery, White Cube and Lisson Gallery. Premises have adjoined buildings occupied by Royal Academy, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Hayward Gallery and retail landmarks like Fortnum & Mason. The space’s interiors were altered over decades reflecting display practices seen at venues such as Saatchi Gallery, Christie's, Sotheby's and university museums like Courtauld Gallery and Ashmolean Museum.
Redfern staged exhibitions that presented works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Prunella Clough, Patrick Heron, Colin Self, Naum Gabo, Jacob Epstein, Antony Gormley, Richard Long and Anish Kapoor. It also showed international modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Fernand Léger. The gallery supported mid-century British painters like Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Lawrence Gowing and younger practitioners including David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Bridget Riley, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Michael Andrews. Special exhibitions have referenced movements and figures such as Surrealism, Cubism, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and solo retrospectives for sculptors linked to St Ives School and institutions like Tate Modern.
Redfern produced exhibition catalogues, monographs and artists' leaflets that documented shows alongside publications by galleries and presses such as Phaidon Press, Thames & Hudson, Whitechapel Art Gallery Publications, Hayward Publishing and academic series from Oxford University Press. Catalogues often included essays by critics connected to Cyril Connolly, John Berger, Robert Hughes, Hilton Kramer and curators from Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and universities like Courtauld Institute of Art and Goldsmiths. The gallery’s printed material has been cited in bibliographies alongside auction catalogues from Bonhams and Sotheby's and exhibition histories compiled by museums including Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum.
Critics from newspapers and periodicals such as The Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, New Statesman, Spectator (magazine), ArtReview and Apollo (magazine) reviewed Redfern exhibitions, situating the gallery within debates about Modernism and postwar British art linked to controversies involving ICA, Tate Modern and academic disputes at institutions like Slade School of Fine Art and Royal College of Art. The gallery influenced collecting practices of patrons including Penny and Nigel collectors and benefactors associated with museums like British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and regional galleries such as Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
Over its history the gallery’s directorships and ownership transitions involved art dealers, patrons and curators interconnected with networks including Gerrard Street dealers, private collectors, auctioneers and museum trustees from Tate, National Gallery, Royal Academy and university departments including University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. Directors and advisors have had associations with figures who worked at Christie's, Sotheby's, White Cube, Lisson Gallery, Hauser & Wirth and academic curatorship at Courtauld Institute of Art.
Archival material relating to the gallery appears in collections and institutional archives at Tate Archive, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, Courtauld Institute of Art and regional repositories like National Library of Scotland and Birmingham Museums Trust. Its legacy is referenced in exhibition histories curated by Tate Modern, scholarly works from Oxford University Press, monographs by Thames & Hudson and research projects at universities such as Goldsmiths, University of London, University College London and King's College London.
Category:Art galleries in London