Victor Musgrave (1919–1984) was a British poet, art dealer and curator. Described by

David Sylvester Anthony David Bernard Sylvester (21 September 1924 – 19 June 2001) was a British art critic and curator. Although he received no formal education in the arts, during his long career he was influential in promoting modern artists, in particula ...

as a 'true pioneer' Musgrave was the first gallerist to show

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...

and was a champion of

Art Brut Art Brut are a Berlin-based English and German indie rock band. Their debut album, '' Bang Bang Rock & Roll'', was released on 30 May 2005, with its follow up, ''It's a Bit Complicated'', released on 25 June 2007. Named after French painter Je ...

. Musgrave ran 'Gallery One' between 1953 and 1963, where the most notable South Asian modernists were exhibited. It was located, first, in Litchfield Street then moving to

D'Arblay Street D'Arblay Street is a street in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, London, named after Frances Burney (Madame d'Arblay). It was formerly known as Portland Street and was built on land owned by the Dukes of Portland known as Doghouse Cl ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

. The gallery gave

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

his first solo exhibition in London'',''

Billy Apple Billy Apple (born Barrie Bates; 31 December 19356 September 2021) was a New Zealand/USA artist, whose work is associated with the British and New York schools of pop art in the 1960s and NY's Conceptual Art movement in the 1970s. He worked alo ...

's ''Apple Sees Red: Live Stills'' was the first solo pop art exhibition in the UK, and they also presented work by

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

artists. The exhibition ''Seven Indian Painters in Europe'' (1958) was one of the most significant works at the gallery and was critically acclaimed. Musgrave promoted eminent Pakistani and Indian artists, including Avinash Chandra, Anwar Jalal Shemza and F N Souza to the British audience. The men were at forefront of avant-garde practice in South Asia. Musgrave met and married the portrait photographer

Ida Kar Ida Kar (8 April 1908 – 24 December 1974) was a photographer active mainly in London after 1945. She took many black-and-white portraits of artists and writers. Her solo show of photographs at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1960 was the first of ...

in Cairo in 1944; they moved to London in the following year. The marriage collapsed in 1969. In 1977 Musgrave met

Monika Kinley Monika Kinley (24 August 1925 – 9 March 2014) was a British art dealer, collector and curator, particularly noted for her championing of the work and integrity of outsider artists. ''The Times'' called her "outsider art's champion". Early lif ...

, an art dealer, collector and curator. Together they put on exhibitions, raised funding and started a collection of outsider art.

Legacy

The ''Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection'' of about 800 works was given to the

Whitworth Art Gallery The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing about 55,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transfor ...

, University of Manchester, facilitated by the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

. Previously it was on loan for ten years at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

(IMMA) in Dublin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musgrave, Victor Art dealers from London British curators 1919 births 1984 deaths 20th-century British poets British male poets 20th-century British male writers 20th-century English businesspeople