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Godfrey Pilkington: Detail of sketch by David Hockney |
Gallery chief a champion of lesser artists
GODFREY Pilkington, who has died aged 88, ran an art gallery with a difference.
He held in utter contempt the money-spinning exhibitions and was a champion of lesser known figurative artists.
He ran the Piccadilly Gallery with his wife Eve from 1953 to 2007. In 1956 Christabel Briggs joined them, and for the next half a century they ran the business together.
“He hated abstract art and would have none of it”, said Mrs Briggs.
His celebrated exhibitions included art nouveau, symbolists and the secessionists such as Klimt and Schiele.
His gallery stood first in Piccadilly Arcade but for most of the time in Cork Street, Mayfair, until the lease ran out in 1999 the premises were taken over by Ralph Lauren and it relocated to Dover Street.
Mr Pilkington became editor of Picture and Prints Magazine, the Fine Art Trade Guild, chairman of the Society of London Art Dealers and a governor of Wimbledon School of Art.
Mrs Briggs said his death also signalled the end of the gallery. She said: “We’ve set up an office in the Pilkingtons’ garage in Barons Court. We are still doing a little trading but I expect it will all fizzle out quite soon. It is very sad.”
She said he loved to cycle to work from his home and it was considered a great irony when he was knocked down in the Hyde Park underpass. He died from his injuries in June.
He is survived by his widow, Eve, two sons and two daughters. |
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