MAYOR GALLERY

1925 - ?

The Mayor Gallery was founded at 37 Sackville Street, London in 1925 by Fred Hoyland Mayor (1903-1973) and the exhibition 'Art Now' was held in October 1925 to coincide with the publication of Herbert Read's book of that title. The gallery closed in mid 1926 and, replacing the old Bromhead Gallery, reopened on 20 April 1933 at 18 Cork Street when wealthy Douglas Cooper (1911–1984) began his career as a dealer by joining Fred Mayor at the Mayor Gallery, in which Cooper had also financially invested and where he developed a network of artists, collectors, and dealers. When Cooper left Mayor, he took his share of the gallery’s stock, including works by Paul Klee and Joan Miró for his own collection. In its early years the new Mayor Gallery was instrumental to the creation of 'Unit One', a British group formed by the painter Paul Nash (1889-1946) in 1933 with fellow artists Henry Spencer Moore (1898-1986), Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), Jocelyn Barbara Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889-1949), Edward John Burra (1905-1976) and others to promote modern art, architecture, and design. Many artists exhibited for the first time in England at the Mayor Gallery including Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Max Ernst (1891-1976), Paul Klee (1879-1940), André-Aimé-René Masson (1896-1987), Joan Miró i Ferrŕ (1893-1983) and Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (1924-2005). Frederick James Mayor (1949-), Fred's son, took over the Gallery in 1973 since then the Mayor Gallery has shown the work of many leading American artists. Suffolk artists who exhibited with the Mayor Gallery include David Carr and John D Edwards.

In 1987 the Gallery entered into a brief partnership with Alex Gregory-Hood of the Rowan Gallery and they traded as the Mayor Rowan Gallery a relationship that lasted until 1993. Located in Gregory-Hood's Bruton Place premises held exhibitions featuring the works of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.




Works by This Artist