Frieze Masters
Regent's Park
London
Booth B04
At Frieze Masters 2023 Grosvenor Gallery will present an exhibition of work by artists associated with Victor Musgrave's highly influential Gallery One. Booth B04
Pieces by Bridget Riley and Yves Kelin will be displayed alongside work by the numerous South Asian artists associated with the gallery, including Sadanand Bakre, Avinash Chandra, Mohan Samant and Anwar Jalal Shemza.
Highlights from the booth include Francis Newton Souza's Oedipus Rex (1961). This painting was exhibited extensively in the 1960s and will be shown alongside several other important Souza's from the period.
Further notable works include Drummer (Circa 1950), a recently rediscovered painting by Maqbool Fida Husain, and oils by Sayed Haider Raza, whose work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou earlier this year.
Charles Moore, Director of Grosvenor Gallery: 'We're delighted to be showing work by this group of artists at Frieze Masters this year. By contextualising them with their European contemporaries it shows how visionary Victor Musgrave and his gallery was.'
A catalogue has been produced which includes several recently discovered photographs of Musgrave at the gallery in the 1950s, alongside archive material relating to Gallery One exhibitions over the years.
About Gallery One:
"The wayward individualist of the West End galleries, unpredictable and outré at times, nearly always a stranger to fashionable taste, often leading towards colourful eccentricity and uninhibited emotional attitudes, but always courageous and ready to back the artist who fits none of the obvious categories."
The Times, 1962
During its ten-year life span, London's Gallery One - run by Victor Musgrave (1919-1984) - staged a series of notable and unexpected exhibitions. The gallery has been described as 'progressive', 'experimental', and 'radical': it often was. Exhibitions such as Festival of Misfits, Monochrome Propositions of Yves Klein, Seven Indian Painters in Europe, The Contemporary Nude were unique in London, as were one-off solo exhibitions for artists as diverse as Rufino Tamayo, novelist Henry Miller, and Yoruba priestess artist Suzanne Wenger.
In addition to the eye-catching, which became his trademark, Musgrave operated the normal lifeblood of a gallery - its stable of artists. Foremost among these was Francis Newton Souza, who was given six solo shows from 1955 to 1962; and John Christoforou with five solo shows from 1954 to 1961. Over the years, Souza took the lion's share of critical acclaim in the press.
Other artists who exhibited include Peter King, Enrico Baj, Alexander Weatherson and Sudanese painter Hussein Shariffe. Christopher Sturgess-Lief and Bridget Riley made their Gallery One debuts in 1962, and both had follow-up shows in 1963. Despite a great divergence in their career paths, they found their champion in Musgrave. Cards and catalogues of this period always proudly proclaim Gallery One as Worldwide Agents for Souza, Riley & Sturgess-Lief.
During its ten years, Gallery One was a haven for creatives, and launched the careers of several artists that would go on to become household names. Without the efforts of the charismatic Musgrave, British and Indian art history would look rather different today.
